The water pump parts for the Honda 20hp outboard got here a few days ago. I finally got around to installing them.
As I was backing the pontoon into the lake and was thinking how easily the engine went back together. My little voice was saying "that was too easy, what's wrong". The engine had a lot of cranking, but no fire. It needed some go juce - which I did not have on board. Good sign, though, was the water coming out of the lower cowling. The pump was working, but I had forgotten to plug the telltale hose and carb drain hoses up to the nozzles in the cowling.
Back to the house, set it all right, and grab some carb cleaner for go juice, and back to the launch ramp for a successful launch.
I think I'll treat the first tank of gas this year with a 1/4 cup of ATF to get some extra detergents in the fuel system. I suspect that there is still some crud in the enrichment circuit.