The kicker we got with our boat would not start. It would fire, run for about 3 seconds, and die. Then I would pull and pull and pull and it wouldn’t start. If I tried an hour later, it would fire for the 3 seconds, die, and the same story as before. I thought it was the fuel pump because it seemed like it was starved for fuel. I bought a new one for $55 and replaced it. It seemed to help a little because it would fire more often, but it would not stay going. So I started looking at the carb. I drained the bowl, and found that it would not refill by squeezing the bulb. I had fuel to the fuel pump, so it was the carb it seemed and not the fuel pump as I thought. I cleaned the carb as best I could without pulling the float and needle valve, and put it back on and still no fuel to the bowl. Now, it was getting serious, so I pulled off the float and needle valve. I used to be in a constant battle with the oil stove on the Dutch Master, so I’d seen a float and needle valve. After I got that off, I started unscrewing things that had a slot for a screwdriver (I later found out these were jets) and snooping around. Then I went back to the house and found a youtube for the same carb. Bingo. It showed me a few other recessed jets to pull and other areas to pull and just blow out with compressed air and replace. I never saw any gunk or debris, but hoped for the best. I poured gas in the bowl when I put it back together to prime the carb, then put the carb back on and gave it a whirl. This time, the outboard started and when I put the choke in, it stayed going. And going. I had the earmuffs over the water intake so I thought I’d let it run for 15 minutes to be sure it wasn’t just running on the fuel I primed the bowl with. A cup of espresso later and the outboard was still running so hopefully it’s fixed. Now I have an extra fuel pump just in case it really does go out. Yesterday, I changed out the throttle cable on the 115 main Yamaha. The engine starts right up and runs smooth but the throttle had been giving me fits. I would flex instead of pushing the throttle wide open. It seemed like I had to adjust the new cable further out on the threaded fitting than I felt comfortable with to make it go out to wide open but we’ll see next time we go out if it’s a fix or I should have adjusted somewhere else and end up with a good spare throttle cable.