I have a really nice, original paint, Mercury Mark 7 that I haven’t run very much. Went to 3 Lakes in Wisconsin (nice lakes) for Memorial Day weekend and took it to run. Had a note on the motor that said, carb. tends to run over but a couple wraps on the float bowl will stop it. Well not this time. Always take a 3hp Lightwin as back up so we didn’t miss out on the nice weather we had. The Mark 7 has been sitting on the rack ever since. Its getting to be that time of the year, where the motors that we’ve run need their pre-winter service along with any necessary repairs.  I was thinking an hour or 2 to make a new float. Ended up taking most of the day and I still haven’t removed the impeller and changed the gear oil. I found that the float wasn’t the problem. There was a lot of dirt around the needle and seat. Gave the carb. a good cleaning, and had it back on the motor. As I started to put the fuel line back on I thought, maybe I better take a look at the filter as that dirt shouldn’t have been there. And that was where the fun began. For some reason the filter was now bigger than the hole it went in. After several attempts to pull it out I snapped off the stud. To get the filter out I would shake it around in the tank till I could get it on my finger. Then I would twist the filter into the threads as far as I could, no more than 2 or 3 threads, and use a dental pick to pull out as much of it as I could. This took several hours. When I did get the busted stud out it was obvious where all the dirt came from.