09/04/2026
2019 Mercury 8hp long shaft 4-stroke. Customer backed into it on a stand and it fell carb side down. Wanted me to check it out because things don't work right anymore. No problem! 💪🏽
At 1st, I thought that it just needed some parts replaced for the choke side of things, until I went to remove it and inspected things further. Was a pain to remove the throttle rod because the throttle rod with butterfly valve on the carb side was stuck. Wouldn't budge. Looked closer and that side of things is messed up, too. I was able to remove the rod attachment and throttle rod. Both of the 2 long bolts holding the carb on the intake were both bent. Was a pain to remove those. Got the carb off and inspected things further. The back butterfly valve connected to the throttle was pushed so far and hard that it snapped the screw heads of the butterfly valve! The carb needs to be replaced.
I called the customer and told him the bad news. A new OEM carb is a little over $400. I sold him a good used one for a 2018 Mercury 8hp 4-stroke for a LOT cheaper than that. Same with the bolts & throttle rod.
With the screw heads snapped off the original carb, I looked for them, and couldn't find them in the carb or on the lower cowling. So, that means, it went down inside the engine!
I removed the intake manifold and it wasn't in there. I looked inside the engine and found both of them touching the bottom intake valve! I took a video and will upload it. He's also lucky that the intake valve was closed, the top one was open! No visual signs of damage on the intake valve, thank God! 🙏🏽
I removed the screw heads from the engine and put everything back together. I removed the float bowl from both carbs. Both gaskets were cruddy, but nothing in the carbs. Both were clean. The float bowl on the 2019 looked nicer, so I used that one with the 2018 top side of the carb assembly. I installed a new gasket prior to install.
I noticed that the prop was hitting & rubbing against the prop guard. He hit something (or a few things) hard! Weird coincidence that it's damaging the prop when it's supposed to protect the prop. Lol! I fixed that issue. The prop isn't hitting the prop guard anymore, but highly recommend to get the prop guard itself fixed or replaced.
I put the engine in water. Hooked-up his tank & hose, primed the fuel system, no fuel leaks. The engine started up 3rd pull. Smoked a little at 1st, then cleared up shortly after. The engine is running good, throttling good, shifting good, and pumping water good. Everything is in good working order. 🤙🏽
