Any ideas what is wrong with my outboard?

I was about 8 miles down Arrow Lake ON the other day when I couldn’t get my trusty 2-stroke merc to fire. When I left the boat launch it took me longer than normal to get it started and it didn’t want to idle. I didn’t think much of it since I have not used my boat for a few months (ben fishing from my canoe all summer). She ran great at high speeds. Anyway, I changed the plugs and figured it would start right up. I also switched gas tanks since I knew my other tank was fresh. I still had to pull on it a long time before it started. Once I got the motor to fire it ran great back to the boat landing. I didn’t want to take any more chances as Arrow Lake would be a lonely place to have motor problems. Could this problem have been caused by my old gas, or does it sound like a piston ring? If change the rings, something I’ve never done but I like to putter on stuff and learn, does it make sense to buy new pistons as well?

How old was the gas, did you add and fuel stabilizer to it? Most likely bad gas from the sounds of it.

To be safe I would run and shut down the motor several times at the dock to see how it starts.

When was the last time you cleaned/kitted the carb?

Fuel pump may be weak?
But I would start with carb tear down/cleaning and check pump diaphragms out too.

2nd the carb. Damn gas these days

Thanks for the feedback.

If you take the carb apart to clean it, pay special attention to the low speed jet. If it gets gunked up, it will mess up starting. I am thinking it is this because you said running wide open was not a problem.

Let us know how it goes.