5 Common Problems with Mercury/Tohatsu 6HP 4 Stroke Outboards

In this video we walk through 5 common issues with Mercury and Tohatsu 6HP 4stroke outboard Jon Boat motors.

I love this motor. Don't let these items sway your decision as they are easily avoided and are common with most small outboards.

I am not an expert mechanic. Read your manual and always do your own research.

00:00 Intro
00:51 Cold Starting
02:49 Pull Start Locking
04:20 Vibration
05:15 Hard To Pull Cord
06:21Carb Sensitive to Contamination

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Disclaimer: Use at your own risk. SAFETY FIRST! Always read your own owner's manual and service manual and understand all safety items for your specific boat, motor, and parts. I am not an expert mechanic or electrician. All of the information I share is for entertainment purposes only. Consult your boat, motor, and parts' manufacturer, owner's manuals and service manuals for expert advice. Boating and repairing/maintaining a boat motor can be dangerous. Please make sure you fully understand all risks involved so you do not get injured or worse. Once again, all content on this channel is for entertainment only. Please only attempt any of the things in these videos unless you have adequate skill, have fully read the owner's manual and service manual, and even then continue at your own discretion and risk. I am not responsible for your boat, motor, and am not responsible for keeping you safe. I am not an expert and not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. This is for entertainment only. All information in this video is provided "as is", with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information.

[AndrewHillaker]

Great video. We use ours for our tender on our sailboat. One thing that weve done is run the engine dry when not using it for more than two days. That eliminates any carb problems due to dirt or water issues in the carb. I spoke with tohatsu service and they said, if you dont use the engine every day, you need to follow wonter layup procedures - run the engine dry.

[ironsmelvin]

I recently purchased a 1963 Thunderbird Sloop Sailboat. The outboard motor (Used to navigate away from the dock and back to the dock) is a Tahatsu 6 horsepower 4 stroke engine. I searched for info regarding the reliability and known common issues. Your video is superb!! Thank you for the detailed information. I subscribed to your channel and look forward to future videos

[jeffreynorcross]

Thanks very much for all the help. I just purchased a new 2024. The priming was my issue. I never would have figured it out myself. I'm liking all your vids...much appreciated

[PapiLoveCrypto]

I've watched hundreds of youtube videos on outboards and boats looking for answers. Not only do you have the absolute BEST videos on all the questions i have but also introduced the BEST answers to questions i didn't even know i would have 😅. Incredible information and camera work. Thank you

[wiebelekkerkerk]

Man, your video's really encouraged me to go for a tohatsu. Just picked up a brand new 6hp last week. Greetings fron the Netherlands.

[dustinj]

Great video, spot on. I also had issues cold starting and using the internal tank. Switching to an external tank solved the issue immediately. Great tip to prime the system with the external tank before leaving if only using the internal tank! For anyone wanting to bomb around for more than 45-60 minutes on the water would highly recommend the external tank.

[davidaguiar]

I've got one of these (2015). I would agree with all you have said. A couple of tricks I've learned.1) I ALWAYS run some Seafoam in the fuel. it cleans the carb and stabilizes the gas. I use a 3 gal tank and never keep more than 2 gal in it. It's best to keep topping off with fresh fuel every other use vs run on old stuff. 3) The motor is harder to start 9especially cold) if you just yank the cord in a traditional way. Per the owners manual, it is best to pull the cord slow for 10-20" or so to run it through a decompression /priming cycle, then pull hard and short when you feel it comes to a hard stop near the end. . Sounds weird but it will start faster and more reliably this way. BTW, my 15 hp Tohatsu is exactly the same way.

[paulob]

I have a new white 6hp tohutsu after selling my older one I really love the features of this motor . I did have carb issues with my last one but I bought it used so wasn't sure if it was a previous use issue. So far soo good with the new one. Great job with the videos

[tiberiu_nicolae]

I have a 5 hp sail power for my sailboat (basically the same motor with a long foot, lower pitch prop and smaller carb) and I didn't winterize it last season. This year it gave me lots of trouble by randomly stopping at full power or at idle. I took the carb appart and in a few hours I had it run like new again. I love the motor and I would recommend it too.

[jeffellis]

Thanks. Definitely the best video I've seen on this motor. I had the bad starting and also cutting out problem and pulled it aggressively to the start it with the gear interlock cutting in. I'll moderate the first part of the pull as you say.

One thing worth mentioning is the remote tank you have looks very much like mine. I found the air bleed has to be all the way undone. There's a detent on it that stops it falling right out. I found that if not screwed right out not enough air can get in and if you're motoring hard it can cut out. Much worse with a full tank because less air to play with at the beginning. If you don't mind spitting out a bit of petrol vapour you can test this by blowing through the hole in the cap to see the difference.

Also - this might be useful for some folks. If you leave the fuel tap open and pump the line from the tank you can fill the outboard tank.

[LongbowLawyer]

Fantastic video! I just picked up a 4hp Mercury outboard and noticed the bore size (123 cc) is the same as the 5 hp and 6 hp outboards and realized the only difference is the carburetor size. Was going to pick up a 6hp carb and swap it out along with a different pitch prop to see if I can really convert it to a 6hp merc.

[ashleydang]

Thanks for sharing the tricks Sir, especially the issue #1. Following your advice, I am able to easily start my motor every time.

[andreasdietrich]

Thank you very helpful! Just bought this machine in the newer version.

[dhouse-dl]

Great info, thnks. Trick with pull is to start slow then yank the final third of travel.

[alonzobishop]

Nice video! Thank you… I own a 6hp Suzuki 4 stroke and have had nothing but problems with it for years… Granted I don’t use it often, but I do use only 91 non-ethanol and Seafoam Marine additive… Love to hear stories of folks who have zero issues with their motors- wish I could join the club! I’m anxiously awaiting an electric option in the future! 🙏🏻

[Wizards]

Was just at a fishing camp that ran Tohatsu 9.8s. The camp had no dock, just a beach landing so we had to be careful to always tilt the motor up and drift to shore at days end. Hunters were also running them in super shallow water and sand/silt was getting sucked up the intake and actually blocking the outlet where the water jets out of the motor. Was a pain to get at and clean out that exit nozzle. Was odd that it was a small enough exit to allow sand and even tiny rocks to build up there and block the exit. Once that exit was cleaned the water exited just fine, so the impeller was still functioning. A lager exit hole would make more sense. Guess the bigger issue is that that same sand/grit will eventually bugger the impeller.

[MichaelDonegan-jriz]

I love watching your videos I also have a 5hp Merc a 2022 model that I bought new just a few months ago from camping world for 1200 hundred bucks I followed your advice I shut the fuel value off every time I shut it down and so far I've never had a problem with it I have it on a 8ft landau Jon boat and with all my fishing gear including me at 160 pounds it will top out at 22 miles per hour love this very fuel efficient motor.oh and I bought a 9 pitch prop from alliexpress for 22 dollars and that is what increased the speed the stock 8 pitch prop maxed out at about 17 to 18 mph

[alexstubbins]

Fuel stabilisers are are a must realy worked a treat for me. Also here in U.K standard petrol at pumps now has a higher ethanol. Its ways best to use lower ethanol option if available.

[klasdykhoff]

Thank you for a good run throu of the engine. I have a 2014 6 hp that recently started to cut out on idle. I guess it’s the carburettor thar needs cleaning. The one common issue with these engines that you don’t mention is the steering brake. It stops working, and if you use the engine on a sail boat, that’s really annoying!

[MartaWalker-rsyk]

Yep, I learned by chance to just connect my external tank before leaving home to prime system and then I use the internal tank nearly 100% of time. Cold Starts quickly now, but before it was #!#!#!#! That tip should be added to trouble shooting portion of owner manual.