1987 Mercury 60HP Outboard Idle Problem

[go2agym1]

I have a 1987 Mercury 60HP Outboard motor that I had the motor tuned and the carbs tuned and so forth last season. Just recently while out on the lake and its 95 degrees out its started to not idle well when it gets hot. When I first start the motor it idles great and I can put it in reverse and stop and go into forward, after it runs for awhile, when I come to the dock and try to put it in idle, it might idle for 30 seconds then it just dies. I can restart it and it won't idle it just dies. Now I throttle it and start it and I can slam it in reverse real quick then as I try to go to forward, it dies. Now it doesn't misfire or anything like that, it just seems like the idle is not high enough but I want to get a few opinions before I try anything. Also when I restart it, it doesn't blow out smoke or anything. I changed the plugs in it yesterday to make sure the plugs were fine and also I drained all the gas out yesterday and started with new gas and oil. BTW I mix my gas manually 50:1 as I took my oiler out a few years ago.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Greg A
Ohio

 

[Texasmark]

Re: 1987 Mercury 60HP Outboard Idle Problem

Funny, I experienced the same problem the last two times out when the temp was around 90. It worked fine until I finished the outing, docked the boat to get the trailer and upon restarting, I had the same difficulty as you.

Soooo I upped the idle setting as I was only running about 600 rpm's when it did idle.

I'm guessing a little vapor lock. If it does it the next time out, I will start looking for a root cause.