Thank you, Mumbles!

Well, I replaced the needle and seat with a new one that has the positive connection between the needle and the float. No more squirting gas out of the carb, but still will not run when connected to the tank & hose. In fact, I only got the faintest pop when trying to start it. Cleaned all orifices & jets in the carb (was actually pretty clean).

QUESTION: What would you recommend for the initial setting of the low speed jet?

Thank you for your continued input. I had the low speed jet set at about 1¼ turns, so that should have been “in the ballpark”.

At this point I have washed my hands of it, and gave it back to the owner. It used to be that I could tune up outboards in my sleep, but it’s been years of “out of practice”, so I had to admit failure. I’m bummed about failing, but at some point, one has to cut their losses.

I previously checked the ignition, and it appears to have good spark. However, since I no longer have ignition testing equipment (Merc-O-Tronic), I can’t say that all components are good.

I did run into a weird situation while timing it with a degree wheel. One set of points easily adjusted to the mark on the mag plate, but the other set of points was maxed-out on adjustment, and I was unable to get it within better that about a half inch of the mark.