by Steve
(Rockingham County, Virginia)
Last year my brother gave me his boat with a Yamaha 25 hp 4 stroke 2004 F25TLRC engine (S/N: 65WL1012006). My son (a professional mechanic) and I cleaned up the fuel system and got it running. It starts well when cold, but after running for awhile (with water muffs on) it starts to miss, as if it's dropping a cylinder in and out, and gets progressively worse. After that it won't idle, and it won't restart until is sits awhile. So I suspect it's flooding out. If it had a choke I'd think the choke was stuck on, but I understand it has a primestart feature. Apparently some Yamaha motors with this have a red lever to select operating mode, and I'd like to check that to see if it's in the wrong setting (i.e. always on), but I can't find any magic red lever. I downloaded the service manual for this engine and the term Prime Start only appears twice - as part of the description, with nothing about how to operate or service it. Any suggestions?