Re: What is the differnce between Mercury and Mariner?
Does it spit and spudder when it dies, or is it like the key is turned off? It sound like electrical to me, but here are a couple of things you can test if you can get it to stay dead for a while. "Spark Test" pull a spark plug, reconnect it to the plug wire, hold the plug against any metal part of the engine "use something insulated to hold it, you can also use a zip tie. Crank the engine, do you have spark? "Fuel Test" get a can of starting fluid, open the throttle butterfly squirt a little "about 1 second" worth of fluid into the carb. If the engine runs for about 5 second and dies again. It would appear the problem is fuel related.
