A "sneeze" from running too lean would kill my motor after two or three times at idle. My local marina, who has always done a good job for me, checked everything out and said that between being older itself and the quality of fuel going down over the past twenty years that many of these motors need to have smaller idle orifices put in to richen the mixture. They did this and it runs a lot better (compared to my father-in-laws 150 of the same era, mine purrs like a kitten). I just thought maybe the reeds might smooth it out a little more and help with the hesitation at take off.

If you guys think I'm asking too much of this older motor I'll leave it alone. I have been burned before by ignoring the old saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it".