Losing prime

[awthacker]

We had a great boat ride last weekend... 50+ miles with no problems. Yesterday we rode about 12 miles out, anchored for maybe 2 hours. Then after pulling up the anchor and turning in, we get on plane for less than a minute and the engine dies. I restart and rev... seems okay... give it some gas and it dies. We idle in some 2 hrs at 6-8 mph. Once inside the inlet, I decide to tinker a little and find that the primer bulb is not firm. I squeeze it and the engine accelerates. Then trade places and have the wife back there squeezing intermittently while I drive and the boat runs great for the last 1/2 mile stretch. So the problem seems to be getting fuel to the engine.

After deep thought last night, I'm thinking it may have something to do with the fuel pump. I disabled the VRO pump personally by plugging the oil-in nozzle and disconnecting the wiring harness to the VRO. Could this be causing the fuel pump to malfunction?

I also plan on replacing the primer bulb and the fuel supply valve (it's a three way valve that would've allowed me to divert fuel to the kicker engine, which is no longer installed on the boat - I was going to replace it with a union, or splice because I only have one tank and one engine), but how can I check the fuel pump for proper operation? Should I plug the VRO harness back in, even though there's no oil supply to it? I remember having read that the proper way to disable VRO was to buy a new fuel-only pump rather than disable half of it.

Thanks,
Aaron