I recently put a "new" 1985 Merc 35 (electric start, console steer, tilt/trim) on my aluminim fishing boat. I cannot seem to find the right approach to starting it "cold" - Try as I might, with any combination of throttle and choke, it just won't start that first time. After a few minutes of trying, I can walk away for 10-15 minutes, come back, and it starts relatively easy.

This leads me to believe I'm flooding it initially, but even if I back way off on the throttle and choke I can't seem to avoid the problem. Any tips ? FYI, I put new plugs in when I put the motor on back in August. THANKS

try.
1)pump the inline fuel primer until the bulb is fairly hard.
2)push in the choke and hold in.
3)leave the throttle at an idle.
and crank till it starts.
4)then release choke.
if it tries to die, push in choke. if it still doesn't stay running, check to see if the primer bulb is soft. that could be your problem.

i'm not a mechanic but that is the typical procedure for cold starting.

opti or pat goff will know for sure.

That's not too far from what I've been doing, I've been giving it a little throttle (that always seemed to help on my OMC's). I'll give her a shot with no throttle this weekend and see. THANKS for taking the time to help me out.

I used to have an outboard that was hard to start cold. The trick was not to pump the primer bulb more than once or twice or it would flood every time. You might want to try only pumping it once and seeing if it will start. If that doesn't work, try pumping it twice, etc.

I never could figure out why that old motor did that, though, because Steve's instructions are what is supposed to work. I have owned several outboards over the years, and all have started as Steve described except for that old Evinrude.

Ron