so the 97 225 explorer's 200 rude was making some serious clanking noises and acting really sluggish.
The clanking was the top crankshaft bearing being too sloppy and letting the crank flop around like a fish. The sluggishness was the vro's fuel pump side giving up and just pumping oil, and well it's not a diesel you know.
so I swapped top crank bearing out, and swapped the vro for the dual vacuum pulse fuel pump. In the process I busted a nipple off of the primer solenoid so I swapped the cap for it out. Finally I pumped the bulb up and the carb's just dripped fuel as fast as I could pump the bulb. So, well yeh you knew it already, I rebuilt the carbs too. And I pumped the bulb again just to watch the carbs leak like a sieve.
Blast it all! then my brain said hey dumazz, you know you did disassemble the primer solenoid right? You remember that nick that was in the o-ring? Yep, that was it. The o-ring had such a small nick that it was almost imperceptible but under pressure it leaked terribly.
Fixing to go test run it now. yippee.
By the way this boat has the luck. I have been out twice and caught a fish each time in it. The first fish was a nice young bull dolphin. Sure wish I had known about aquasport's back when I was really serious about boats. It could have save me so much effort and time.
