Yes, it takes a lot of bulb-squeezing. When I hooked up the remote tank fittings, I ran my hose from the hose fitting through the on-off valve, to the fuel pump. This winter, I took out the valve, thinking that it might have accounted for the difficult prime. I have run at full throttle, no problem. The fuel pump and entire fuel delivery system seems to be adequate once it gets a good prime. My water pump did not fail. I had the "froze-up" shifter problem, so replaced the water pump while the lower unit was off. The "froze-up" shift problem is caused by insufficient lubrication of the shift lever itself in its housing. It's amazing how "froze-up" this can get! The lever gets froze by corrosion in the hole through which the lever rotates. You have to take off the powerhead, clean out the corrosion, replace the lever, and grease it up with all the grease you can get in! It might have been ok to clean up the old lever, but I wasn't taking chances on doing this job twice. My manual shows a lube zerk which would have prevented this problem, but my motor has no such zerk, and no hole through which grease could get wher it needs to be. I thought about drilling it out and tapping for a zerk, but figured it took 6 years to get bad in salt water... I'll probably replace the motor before it happens again. I haven't looked at my choke knob...maybe I should. Mark House ----- Original Message ----- From: "W David Scobie" <wdscobie@yahoo.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 5:21 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: M 15 outboard and filling the fuel tank mark: i'm into my third season now with the suzuki. when you state "slow to prime" and "well-primed" do you mean you REALLY need to pump the external tank primer-bulb many times to get a _very_firm_ amount of pressure in the line in order for the fuel pump to get good suction? have you tested with the motor running 3/4 throttle? interesting that the issues you listed are the exact same items that have failed on my '03 model that came with my M17 - * waterpump = gave out on my _just_ as i finished the '09 MSOG san juan island trip. * gear shifting = gave out on mine, froze ROCK SOLID, _just_ as i finished the '09 MSOG trip. add to the above, last year the choke knob feel off during the first trip of the year (late april). i have it zipped tied to the control rod now ... how this isn't standard i don't know? :: Dave Scobie :: M17 #375 - SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com :: Sage Marine - www.sagemarine.us --- On Fri, 3/4/11, Mark House <itsmark@bresnan.net> wrote: Dave: Here's what the fuel pump looks like: http://store.brownspoint.com/df4/fig009.asp I buy parts from Browns Point in NJ, because they have all the parts drawings on their website. Here's what I bought for my 2004 model: #65720-986B0 Fuel Connector $18.57 #65750-87J11 Fuel Hose Connector $15.50 #09103-06237 Bolt $ 2.07 See the drawing below: http://store.brownspoint.com/df4/fig031.asp I already had a 3 gallon tank and hose assembly from a previous boat. I have limited experience with this setup, as I just got my M-17 launched last fall. I found that the system is somewhat unusually slow to prime. I started the motor at the ramp, motored about 100 yards and it quit. So I had to sail into my slip! Anyhow, when it gets well-primed it works with no problem. I ran it 45 minutes in a garbage can in my drive, and up to 30 minutes at a time on the lake I replaced the water pump, and solved gear shifting problems during the winter, so need to run it again in the drive. Maybe tomorrow. If so, I'll send you photos. Mark House ----- Original Message ----- From: "W David Scobie" <wdscobie@yahoo.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 3:51 PM Subject: Re: M_Boats: M 15 outboard and filling the fuel tank mark: what parts did you order? i've looked into this to 'retrofit' my suzuki 4HP and i always run into a 'wall' of information that says i need about 12 part ... one of which is the 6HP's fuel pump. :: Dave Scobie :: M17 #375 - SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com :: Sage Marine - www.sagemarine.us --- On Fri, 3/4/11, Mark House <itsmark@bresnan.net> wrote: I noticed that My 4 HP Suzuki has a fuel pump that pumps gas from the integral tank to the carb. So I threw away the tank and added a gas line fitting. Got parts supposed to go on the 6HP. It works fine from a remote 3 gallon tank. Maybe some other small motors have a similar arrangement. Biggest problem was how to plug the hole in the cowling where the tank fill used to stick out! Mark House _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats When posting, remember that there is no privacy on the Internet!