1964 mercury 650 runs on ears, stalls in water.

[jcar585]

Hi any help would be appreciated. Bought the outboard this spring. Got it to run on ears but no luck in the water. compression is 110 125 125 110. Spark is good. Rebuilt the carbs, fuel pumps and changed the top and bottom gasket on the bottom cowl because it seemed like exhaust was getting inside the housing and getting sucked into the carbs. Motor seemed to run better after the carb and fuel pump rebuild but no difference in the water. Ive adjusted the air/fuel mix screws on carbs and gotten a smooth idle on land. Ive set the idle higher on land to try to make up for the extra load in water. I noticed the last time out i had water and exhaust coming up through the shift shaft housing just under the front of the cowling. I also changed the impeller and have good flow out of the motor. I plan on dropping the lower unit again to try to figure out where all the water and exhaust are coming from . Exhaust has me completely confused since it has no pipe on the the inside of the crank shaft housing.

Again any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

[jcar585]

The motor will start in the water but it runs rough and stalls most of the time when i try to idle and everytime i put it in gear.

[Shellback]

I know back in the day when cars has ignition points, they would rev up and sound good, but when you put a load on the motor, they would have no power. It was due to the points closing down. I imagine a 1964 outboard has ignition points, so I'd check that out. PS. Just because the spark looks good, doesn't mean it is good.

[LongLine]

Exhaust cover gasket shot?

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[jcar585]

Thanks shellback and longline for input. Both are a real possibility. When i tested the spark with in-line tester i got orange flashes and i just read they should be blue. Not sure if its the tester i bought or if the blue is if i was looking at the spark with no tester.