Mercury 9.9 Outboard motor problem, please help.?

Question

Hi,

We have a mercury 9.9 outboard, 2 stroke electric start, i believe it is 2001, and its having a few issues... We run it and it runs good for a while, but then all of a sudden slows down to barely a putt for about 3 seconds then completely dies. I restart the engine then it will not go faster than a putt. It basely moves the thing. It runs better and can go faster if we choke it, but obviously we can't do that for long or we'll flood the engine. We thought we fixed it because we had realized the air vent on the tank was not open, but after we thought we fixed it, it gave us the same problem. We are thinking there is moisture in the gasoline or somehow the engine isn't getting enough gas. Has anybody else had this problem?

Answer 1

had the same problem. Then found a crack on the cowling mounted primer button. Replaced it and cured problem

Answer 2

I have a mercury 9.9 hp 4 stroke 2007,not starting.
It does have some oil coming through the foot and the pull cord is having some serious resistance. seem like it's experiencing heavy compression. Am I doing something wrong that's causing this problem? It's an almost new engine but being sitting for awhile. I had it laying on it's side for quite some time and don't know if this can be a contributing factor. I also have it out of water so could this have something to do with the starting mechanism? I am also interested in finding out if this motor can accommodate an electric start? I forgot to mentioned that when pulling the cord to start it there is a red light that's coming on and off. Kindly explain?