[steplift20]

hold on before you go washing out your tank this is what you have to do
1st check your vent is it clean the one thats on the out side
ok its clean next no water in the fuel water sepperater
make sure of that by taking it out and dumping it
now that thats good you know you have an electrical problem but what is it?
ok this is what you have to do
the next time this happens you are going to remove the cowling from the motor and with the motor running you will remove one sparkplug wire from one spark plug to see if you have spark you will hopefully see that one side is not having a spark and the other side is so now you know its the switch box that is the problem
also it could be the stator but you should bring it back the the repair center and have them check it again mercury garranteis it for 1 year and i had to replace mine 2 time in the same year so they do go bad
but i would say its an electrical problem for sure
do what i said and let me know because i had a simullar problem i would lose half my cylinders and the oil alarm would go off and it was the switch box but you could only check it when it was happening
good luck