Maiden voyage yesterday and ran 16 miles fishing in Lake Erie. Upon returning to port, I reduced the throttle as I approached the pier heads. After a few seconds, I noticed the RPM increased 200 RPM without a change in throttle position? I went to idle speed and about 50ft from the boat ramp, it stalled an would not start. We drifted to the dock without issue and found gas on the intake and around the accelerator pump of the carb. Had the fuel pump rebuilt over the winter, could excessive fuel pressure be an issue?
I re-checked the float level and it was to specification. I was Walleye fishing yesterday and it initially started and ran fine. After moving several times it would not start. I found if I held the key on, it would briefly run. My thought was either key switch or ballast resistor. I found the connection to the resistor was very loose so I re-crimped and cleaned the connection and it started right up. On the trip back to port, I briefly ran at wide open throttle and the surging issue was gone. 4400 RPM @ 41mph. So I can only surmise that the surging was caused by the intermittent connection to the ballast resistor.