I'm no mechanic either but it sounds like it might be the primer bulb. If the check valve inside it has gone bad, that would allow the fuel to drain back into the tank.

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I have a 35 mercury on my old pontoon ad last week it broke a gas line between the fuel pump and the carb ...I replaced the two fuel lines, the one from the connection on the front of the motor to the fuel pump and the one from the pump to the carb and also replaced the fuel filter,now the leak is fixed but for some reason it wont hold fuel in the line after I kill the engine... Somebody has to pump the bulb and hold it while I start the engine, after it starts it runs great at all speeds but after it is killed the bulb has to be pumped and held again before it will start...Not an outboard mechanic here by no means but I thought surely I could replace a couple short lines but something seems to have went wrong... Anybody else have this problem an if so what was the solution? Before I replaced the lines there wasn't a hint of this problem.
I'm no mechanic either but it sounds like it might be the primer bulb. If the check valve inside it has gone bad, that would allow the fuel to drain back into the tank.
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I was thinking that might be the problem but not really sure if that is a function of the bulb, I replaced the bulb earlier this year because it was leaking and it could have gone bad again but it seems odd that would happen at the same time as the line leak but I am at a loss to explain what else could be causing it.... Thanks
Try turning the bulb around & see if this doesn't fix it.
