2005 Mercury 50 ELPTO Fuel Line T – Another Boat Project That May Never Gets Finished…

It can be really frustrating working on outboards sometimes. In this case I was replacing the fuel lines on the outboard for “The Tin Can.” I’m thinking I might use it on “Whisker Seeker” since the outboard that came with Gary’s boat was always a bit undersized for it. Whisker Seeker is rated for 60, but even 50 is more than the old Johnson 40 that came on it, and this particular 50 feels a bit “hot”. In good trim it pushed The Tin Can to over 45mph (46.2 on GPS) with two adults on the boat a couple times. If I can cruise Whisker Seeker at 35+ with a load I’ll be happy… for a short time anyway.

I think I finally found and fixed the source of some issues I’d been having with the Merc 50, and a little while back I put it all back together again. Ultimately I pulled the carbs apart 3 times, but didn’t actually find the problem the first two. The jets are in the bottom of the fuel bowl. So weird. Yes, they were partially obstructed. Putting everything back together one of the fuel line Ts cracked and I was not able to find a replacement. I hunted for a while, and finally I just made one.