our sailing season is year round. That means no lay up time spent with the gas sitting going bad. I suppose some people experience the problem because they just don't use their boats much. I, on the other hand, use it all the time. So often in fact that I don't even worry about running the fuel out. The only time I run the fuel out of the carburetor is when I'm going to transfer the outboard onto the big boat for a crossing. I have always carried tools for a carburetor rebuild in a small Pelican Case which includes a spark plug tool, multi tip screw driver, #10 combination wrench, #10 nut driver, wet/dry sand paper and dental pick. Even with a fuel filter I've picked up debris that has shut me down once or twice over the years and being able to do a quick clean out has saved me a lot of rowing. It's usually, about 90% of the time, something stuck in the low idle jet. The scenario is always the same. I'm idling along looking for a place to snorkel and the engine starts to idle rough. I shut it down to do some swimming and snorkeling and I can't get it started. I pull the fuel line off of the carburetor. I use the #10 nut driver to remove the bolts holding the Carburetor to the block. I'm careful not to turn it over on it side and keep it flat as I'm removing it. I hold it up in the air high enough and, while still keeping it level, remove the four screws holding the bowl to the body of the carb. Without spilling the gas out I remove the bowl. This allows me to see the condition of the fuel in the bowl and tells me if I have a bunch of gunk or if some small particles got past the filter. Now I screw the carburetor adjustment screw all the way in while counting the number of turns. This allows me to return the adjustment screw to the same position after the rebuild by turning the screw all the way in and backing it out that many turns. Usually about a turn and a quarter back out. I remove the slug that holds the main jet in place and remove the jet. It's never fouled but I clean it anyway. I remove the low idle jet and hold it up to the light and look through it. If I see a perfectly clear circle of light then I know it's clear. If I see no light or a half circle of light I know something has clogged it and clean it out. Hopefully I have some electrical contact cleaner, break cleaner or even wd-40. I'm really lucky if I have the little red tube that attaches to the can so I can pressure spray the debris out of the low idle jet. I take off the float and it's valve, I remove the cover plate and spray out all of the passages and generally clean off the outer body. I re-install all the parts in the reverse order being careful to set the idle adjustment by screwing it all the way in until it lightly sets and then screwing it back out the proper number of turns. I re-install the carburetor back onto the motor being careful that the gasket between the two doesn't fall partially off as it sometimes hard to see. I connect the fuel hose and move on to the spark plugs. Usually this only means cleaning out the build up of fuel from when you were trying to start the engine. Doing this keeps you from having to clear the excess fuel by pulling on the cord a hundred times and coming out of this with a bad shoulder of blister on the middle finger. While I have the plugs out I'll use the dental pick to scrape out any carbon build up making sure I don't disturb the gap setting of the plug. I'll give the gap a quick polish with the fine wed/dry sand paper and re-install the plugs. I'll work on the plugs one at a time so as not to get the wires crossed when reinstalling them. I'll attach the gas line to the tank, give it a few pumps until the bulb is hard, pull the choke, start the engine and off I go. I'll do all of this work while sitting in the dinghy over a rag. If I drop something in the process the rag keeps it from bouncing about and being hard to find. It also absorbs any gas that may spill. Carburetors aren't hard to work on but some people find them intimidating. If you have experienced any fuel issues at all and are going to be away from the dock for any length of time at all I highly suggest that you take one apart and get friendly with it. It's not rocket science and could save you a lot of heart ache later on.