3 possibles......
Fuel Leak outside - you'd smell it. Not likely.

Fuel Leak Inside - ripped diaphram in pulse fuel pump. You're pumping
fuel into one cylinder's crankcase raw with the bulb. As the rip is
open, it'll never get hard.

Stuck float valve....pumping gas up into the carb and into the gullet
of it.....never closes.

As it acts fuel starved, I'm for #2, fuel pump diaphram blew a hole in
it that time it backfired, remember?



On Thu, 7 Aug 2003 20:56:31 -0400, "Peter Wedeles"
wrote:

1980's vintage 60 hp merc outboard 3 cyld all at 125 psi
dual cars clean no leaks an fully synched.
primer ball won;t go hard,new primer ball won't go hard ,changed fittings
at both ends of gas line still won't go hard. motor is a little hard to star
but does star and run very well most of the time except for the odd time
when at full speed it will stumble as if fuel starved for about 2 sec.
might be in my mind but seems like perhaps top end is down just a little .
Any ideas ?
thanks



Larry

Extremely intelligent life must exist in the universe.
You can tell because they never tried to contact us.