I'm sure you are as sick of reading this as I am of typing it but we are having another delay getting out of here. For those of you that have been following our posts know, we have been having problems with our Mercury 8hp four stroke out board. It's carburetor has been rebuilt at least 4 times just since we have been here. It just never seems to run properly. The first time the mechanic did it was when we were here back in March of this year. He did a great job and it never ran so well as when we got it back. He did tell us that we would need another set of gaskets for it as the ones we had were pretty well shot. When I came back from the US, I brought back a set of gaskets as well as every jet and intake valve available for the motor. Once back, I started the engine on a whim as we had been here for about a month. Guess what---the carburetor leaked! This being no really surprise, I called the manager of the marina and he took the engine along with all the spare parts I'd brought and headed for the mechanics shop. To make a long story short, well, when we got the motor back, it appeared to run badly with a bunch of black smoke coming from the exhaust. Our thoughts were that it had been transported upside down with oil from the crankcase getting into the cylinders. Back it went only to return about two weeks later. It started at the second pull and ran fine. We even stuck it on the dinghy and I zipped all around the marina harbor. We took it off the dinghy and stowed it on the stern. A week or two later, I again started it up. Ran fine for about 5 minutes and died. I squeezed the fuel bulb on the fuel line and it was quite soft. Once hard, I started the engine. Again, it ran for about 5 minutes and stalled. The fuel bulb was soft again. Obviously, the engine was fuel starved.

Off came the motor and off to the shop. It seemed as though it needed either a new fuel pump or the float in the carb wasn't doing it's job of letting more fuel in when it was needed. Back to the mechanic it went. Now here is where it hits the fan. No one out here carries the parts for this motor!! Not in Singapore nor in Malaysia. OK, fine, I'll order them from the US and have them shipped out here. WHOA!!! Suddenly, I find that Mercury won't allow any OEM parts to be shipped out of the US from any of their suppliers!!! Now please keep in mind that this is the last piece of equipment that we need fix before we can get out of here and head back north. The first company I called took the order and would ship them to my mail forwarding service in Florida. The bad part is that they didn't have the fuel pump and it would be a few days before it came in so I called a second company and got it from them as they had it in stock. I'd have it shipped to the same address in Florida and the two orders combined. Guess what? The second company didn't really have the fuel pump in stock and never emailed me to let me know. I had to email them as I got no notice that it had shipped. Apparently, some one else got the part before my order was processed, at least that was what I was told. So, the first order, including a completely new carburetor has shipped and should be to Florida by tomorrow. We still haven't heard from company #2 about the fuel pump.

I wrote Mercury about their policy and was advised to contact a company in Singapore that could help us. I called them this morning only to be told that they didn't have the part and it would take about 2-4 weeks to get it in. They further told me that they couldn't sell me the part anyway as they were not a retail outlet and I'd have to get it ordered from a store, have them put in the order and then it would get shipped in. The man at the distribution center did forward my email address to a supplier in Kuala Lumpur and they sent me an email about what part I needed. Nope,they don't have it in stock either and it would take 3-4 weeks for them to get it in too. Plus, just like the first distribution center, they couldn't sell me the part and I would have to find a retail store and get it ordered by them! Just to add insult to injury, the price they quoted me was twice what it cost in the US!

So, here we sit, waiting again for parts that have to get to our forwarding service and then repacked and resent to us out here. We just might have some of the parts in another 10 days of so if we are lucky but I'm no longer going to hold my breath. It's getting old! I did forward both distribution centers responses back to Mercury but expect no response. Sure wish I'd gone with YAMAHA!!!