Safety1

If its any consolation, I also have a 99 Merc XR6 150 and I have the same starting problems you do. I have a standard throttle and I have come to the point where I push in the button to disengage the "transmission", advance the throttle and turn the key to start (this is no easy task when you are alone). When the engine finally fires (and starts racing), I quickly move the throttle back to neutral. I'm sure folks on this forum will say that my approach is a bad and risky practice, so I'll try some of the advice given to you.

I have a 1999 Merc 150 outboard. I noticed I had a little stream of water leaking where the lower unit joins the upper part of the motor, so I pulled the cover and noted a little bit of water coming from the lower part of the engine (I really can't tell from where), collecting in the bottom part of the upper unit and then running out into the lake where the upper unit and lower units join. I seem to have good water pressure according to my gauge and a good stream from the pee hole. Anyone have any ideas where the water might be coming from (maybe water pump seal?), and as long as I keep getting good water pressure/flow can I wait until this winter to get it fixed? Your thoughts/help would be appreciated.

I have a 1999 Merc 150 that had the powerhead rebuilt ($4500) over the winter. Put in the water last weekend to break it in (doubled the oil in gas since they removed the oil injector as part of the rebuild) and ran it for a couple of hours up to 3K rpm, everything went fine. Put it back in the water yesterday, slowly moved away from the ramp and out into the main lake and got it back up to 3K rpm. Boat went about a quarter mile, surged a couple of times (sort of like your lawn mower when its running out of gas), and then just died. Tried to restart, motor turned over fine, but not even a hint of firing. Thought my plugs might be fouled from the extra oil so I cleaned them but no luck. Motor seems to be getting plenty of gas.....anyone have any ideas as to what might be wrong? :-/