O'day 222 mercury outboard

[todd brown]

Launched the boat on Saturday. Out board seemed sluggish. Finally made it out to a place on lake to where we could sail for a bit. Worried the entire time we could not get back into harbor. Fired up the 1984 mercury 7.5 and same thing, very sluggish. Made it to slip, pulled the cover on outboard and there it was, a shop rag jammed into the carb that the mechanic had put there for transport of the engine after service last fall. Pulled it out, engine revved up and ran like a top. Looking back to last fall, he told me don't forget this rag.......man I'm getting old

 

[Brian S]

Don't worry, I was prepping to step my mast, and examining all the standing rigging for cracks, meathooks, rust stains. I got to the end of the forestay, and I was like "OMG, where the hell did I put the forestay clevis pin!?!?!?!?!?!" I couldn't for the life of me think where I would have put it so as not to forget where it was this spring. Then I walked up to the bow, and found it ring-dinged into the stemhead fitting where it belonged. Relief!

I would have forgotten about the rag just the same as you did!

 

[Sunbird22358]

I had trouble starting my outboard one Spring............... turns out that it REALLY works better if you remember to reconnect the sparkplug leads after off-season storage! Since then I've always wiped a little waterproof grease on the insides of the plug boots and then reconnected them after winterizing and before putting motor into my basement storage spot! (ALL gas is drained out of motor before storage In basement)

 

[Ward H]

I had only sailed my boat 4 times before being hauled out for Sandy and the winter.
At spring launch I was lowered into the water by the lift but still in the slings. Time to start the OB. Wouldn't start, wouldn't turnover, nothing. Had yard guy check the battery and it was charged. He started it right up.
Wife had been taking photos of the launch and caught me hitting the stop button instead of the start button.
Whoops.