Cold Starting Procedure

[hooken203]

This is a 2 stroke outboard right? If so pushing the throttle to wot before start up does nothing and having the throttle open at all kinda defeats the use of the choke. If it were me I would do nothing with the throttle until the motor fires then add some throttle and keep bumping the choke until it will run on its own.

[rmart]

Yes, this is a 2 sroke (it is a 1987 2 stroke 115hp).

I am not sure if pushing the throttle to wot prior to my starting attempts is correct (or) if my leaving the throttle at the 1/4 neutral throttle position is correct.

This is how I had always started but it's also why I am looking here for the general opinion here.

Is the general opinion to not touch the throttle at all and only hold the electric choke switch until the engine first fires?

[rmart]

Well I finally found out what the problem was that was causing the hard starting of my engine.....my engine's battery cables/harness.

Out of pure luck this past weekend a friend recommended that I try jump starting the engine straight from the battery when he heard the slight hesitation in my starter motor engaging. When we did this the starter motor engaged without the 1 - 1 1/2 second hesitation I had experienced all season long...and then it fired up on the first attempt (after sitting for 1 week).

That confirmed it for me and I went ahead and made a new set of 2AWG battery cables. The resulting difference in my starting blows me away as the engine comes to life as quick as I can turn the key now.

Thanks to all the input and assistance from everyone here. Testing all of these components (fuel, carb, spark, timing...) over the past several weeks has taught me a great deal about my engine.

My advise to any of you experiencing similar hard starting is to try to jump start the engine straight from the battery.

My cables were dated 1993 and from the exterior looked perfect. There were no cracks in the cables, the cables were still flexible with no brittle or hard locations, and they were never warm or hot to the touch in any location even after running the engine for hours(which could have told me there was some internal resistance). In addition the connections to the battery and engine were shiny and clean and the lugs themselves were well crimped and factory sealed with heatshrink adhesive lined ends.

So even if your cables look and feel perfect....they still might be the problem. Wish I had tried this earlier, and that's the reason I post this follow up for those of you having similar issues.