Fuel not getting to motor

O

OUTRIGGER

New member
Gas in not making it to the 90 hp Honda, (2004 22'). I put on a new primer and checked all the hose clamps. Lines look fine, tank is half full. I took off the motor connector and pumped, no gas at all, nothing but air. On the upstream side of the bulb I have the multi tank valve, and then what ever is in the tank to draw up the gas.
Has anyone has this problem? Hope I don't have to pull the tank and get into it.
 
Make sure that your tank selector valve is in the correct position for the tank you are drawing from. If you are sure that your tank selection is correct, then pull the hose off the tank and connect it to a portable, and try it. When you hold the primer bulb, make sure it is upright -- in some cases the checkvalve does not function unless gravity is pulling the ball down to seal each time the bulb is squeezed.
 
Thank you Digger, never have thought about the bulb being upright, always just been on top of the tank horizontal. I will try this first.
Never have moved the tank selector so know it's OK.
Next I will try the portable tank. That will be great to help isolate the problem
Thanks for your help.
 
For us, it was the water separator. We were stranded and could not figure out why no fuel was getting to the motor. But when we bypassed the water separator, she ran fine.
We replaced the separator unit, it was pretty corroded. Problem fixed!
Good luck!
 
If none of those thing pan out check the fuel pick up in the tank. I have seen then fall off before, no on a cdory but a tank is a tank. Also check the little filter on the end of the pick up. some tanks have them some do not.
 
Thanks for everyone's suggestions. It was so cold & windy yesterday so have not gone back to the marina. Did get some gas in a portable tank and hope to try that out tonight. Will disconnect the line at the fuel selector switch and see if the bulb pulls up the gas.
Water separator should be OK since I changed it this past summer.
 
I had this issue. Changed out everything - Fuel hoses, water fuel separator, etc. Long story short my fuel pick up was lying in the bottom of my port tank. The molded nut was so corroded on mine I ended up screwing the tank up trying to loosen the thing. Cut the fuel pickup assembly out and there was the fuel pickup on the bottom of the tank. I ended up buying two new tanks. This was about a year ago and wanted to be sure when I took her out in the salt I was not gonna have any issues. So far so good!!!!

Good Luck!!!
 
I think I've got it. By process of elimination it indeed must be the pickup in the tank. I will attempt to get into the tank and see what I can mess up (that's how it usually goes).
Thanks for all your help.
 
Can't get fuel to pump from either tank, both of which are half full.
First took off connector at motor, pumped bulb but nothing out of gas line.
Next disconnected at the water separator, pumped but nothing,
Next bypassed the tank selector, took the gas line directly from a tank, pumped but nothing. Did this to both tanks, Purchased new bulb even though the old one was not a year old, still no gas would come.
Checked for mud daubers in the tank vents and they were OK.
Next blew air into the tank, gas bubbled with no problem so the pick up line is in place and screen at the end of the line is clear. Yes I know about the arrow on the bulb and to hold it vertical. All this working the problem back and still can't get any gas to pump.
Went and bought a 6 gal. portable tank and new line & bulb, and it ran great.
Can anyone give me some help please. Something weird for this to occur with both tanks at the same time. Thanks much!
 
It may have a bad anti siphon valve. Take it out, and put in a hose barb. At least this will bypass the filter, hose, etc. Just because you can blow air into a pickup, does not mean it is 100% OK. You can have a situation which is like a ball valve, and the air will go one way, and not the other. It will also go by a bad anti siphon valve.
 
Well, you've tried everything else. How about a loose fitting or hose clamp? If you have gas in the tank and it appears that you have a clear line, it could be that you're sucking air through an air leak. Remember you're trying to create a vacuum and if air leaks in, you'll not suck gas.

If you can pull the fuel pickup, take it out of the tank, blow it out, put it in a can of gas and see if you can pump gas up. Or you could try to siphon gas using your fuel line. If that doesn't work you've got a leak.

Two ways to find the leak. First, remove the gas line at the tank and pump the bulb with your finger over the end you removed. If no suction, pump a little air pressure into the line. If there's air coming out where it shouldn't, plug it. Don't use too much air pressure.

I had an old truck which kept dying on me. Finally pulled the fuel tank and removed the outlet valve. A small piece of rubber would plug the outlet every time the fuel pump would suck gas. It would float free otherwise. Just had to tell the story. Drove me nuts and I want to share.

Boris
 
Just wondering if this was ever resolved, I have a very similar issue with our '02 Tomcat, twin 90HP Hondas, approx, 230 hrs each.
Went out on maiden voyage, engines started fine and ran pretty well. RH motor would cut out at 4K+ RPM, but could catch it and keep it from dying if I tapped the choke. Seemed to indicate fuel starvation issue.
Stopped and had LH engine idling and was turning the idle up just a bit and it stumbled and died. Did not want to restart.
LH engine had a primer bulb, RH did not. Squeezing bulb had little effect. Found loose hose clamp at RH tank outlet fitting and tightened it. Tightend all hose clamps I could find, none overly loose.
Now neither engine wants to start and wind is picking up. (as a side note, I did operate this boat in WA and it ran fine, but no extended 4K RPM operation was done..., Although I did run it WOT and got 5400 RPM out of her.)
Finally got LH engine to start and limped home with periodic bulb pumping.
SO, go home, checked filters, fittings, etc. All seems fine. Bulb seems wonky, so I put a small electric fuel pump in place of the bulb and got both engines to fire up and run well.
I have 2 OMC bulbs ordered and am hoping that was the issue on the LH motor and the loose connection was the problem on the RH motor.
Seems unlikely to say the least that I had fuel pump failures on both motors...
Also, do most of you have primer bulbs? Did our boats come with them from the factory? Why would there be one on the LH both not one on the RH?
I appears that the RH and LH fuel/engine systems are setup to be stand alone and do not interconnect. So odd that both engines had/are having issues..
Thanks for the input!
 
I would say that it would be very unusual for 90 hp outboards not to have primer bulbs. I replace the bulbs about every 3 years. I had a neighbor who had similar issues, and had gone thru all of the various diagnostic plans. He finally borrowed an electric fuel pump, and found that it was the fuel pump, and that there was a small hole in the diaphragm, when he tore it down.

See if there is any air in the lines (sounds like not?). Possible obstruction in the pickup--blow back thru the fuel lines, and may push any debris off the strainer or screen.

Again, good to have Racor filter/water separator. Do you have a fuel selector valve, or only feed each side from that side's tank? (Stock, the boats did not have a crossover system)


One other factor--what is the altitude you are boating at? Since these are carburetor engines, jets may need to be changed for your altitude.
 
Outrigger, I had the same no-fuel problem on my 2006 Suzuki 90. After all other parts had been replaced it turned out that the fuel pickup tubes inside both tanks had shattered from age.

This meant removing the pickups from both tanks while still in the boat (had to do that to get clearance to remove the tanks). My tanks were made by Moeller and their customer service is at 800-432-8344. They were helpful. You can get replacement pickups in two lengths. I got the shorter ones, which don't make it to the bottom of the tanks; a friend did his and got the longer ones and cut them to length, which was a better idea since he can now get to all the fuel.

They used two different kinds of fittings to attach the pickups to the tanks: one is threaded (what I had) and one is pop-lock or snap ring. On Moeller's website you can find photos and instructions for removing them. As I remember it was less than obvious to find these photos -- had to poke around some.

When doing it I also replaced the anti-siphon valves in both barb fittings, though after looking at them this step could have been skipped. They're cheap anyhow.
 
Fuel will draw from the tank, thru the Racors and to the engines. I know this from ingesting some gas whilst sucking on the lines. I confirmed the delivery by using a 12V Facet pump.
No crossover, stock tank configuration.
On engine filters are clear. Hard to imagine 4 engine mounted fuel pumps all failing at the same time. Plus, the "rattle" of the Facet pump would increase as the engines were "revved" which would indicate to me that the engine mounted pumps were sucking a little more fuel that the Facet could supply. (If you have ever used these crappy little pumps, you know how noisy they can be unless the system is "charged" with fuel pressure.
I agree with the oddity of only one primer bulb. That should be resolved by mid week hopefully.
And we are at a fairly high altitude, but the engines idled well and did not bog under WOT, just suffered from too steeply pitched props. Another item on the list....
Thanks for the input!
 
My 2010 22 Cruiser is acting just as you describe. I installed a new primer bulb last week and it worked great-until we lost prime again half mile out. How do you remove the tank covers? Did you order replacements from Moeller or did your local guy have some? Thanks
 
I kept getting dual engine failures. Replaced everything from the engine to the tank. It turned out both fuel pick ups were broken off 1/2 inch from the top of both tanks. They had gotten brittle and coincidentally both broke at the same time.

IMG_0960.sized.jpg
 
Lil Rascal":33wi494g said:
I kept getting dual engine failures. Replaced everything from the engine to the tank. It turned out both fuel pick ups were broken off 1/2 inch from the top of both tanks. They had gotten brittle and coincidentally both broke at the same time.

IMG_0960.sized.jpg
Click to expand...

Well now I could kick myself. Just pulled both tanks and put in new fuel lines. Pick ups were stiff but in good working order. Shoulda tossed a couple new ones in while it was all pulled apart! That’s some rough luck both of them failing simultaneously!
 
Back
Top