There is usually a brass or fiberglass insert in the impeller. If you try to
pull the impeller away from the insert, you might find that the bond between
the two no longer exists. Many folks have been fooled by this failure.
Jim
wrote in message
ups.com...
wrote:
I left the boat in the driveway for one year without starting the
motor. Today, I put the lower unit into a bucket of water, and start
the motor to winterize it. After trying to start it for a couple
times, I finally manage to start it. Unfortunately, I cannot see the
telltail water stream coming out from the motor cooling system. All I
see is some smoke coming from the hole where the water stream is
supposed to come out from. Despite the fact that the motor temperature
was not overheating (only run it for 30 seconds or so), I decided to
turn off the motor just to be in the safe side.

My question is:

Should I expect to see the telltail water stream coming out from the
motor as soon as I start the motor? Does the motor need to reach a
certain temperature before the water stream coming out? The boatowner
manual said this:

"2. If engine is cold, run engine for 1 or 2 minutes ...
3. After engine has warmed up, check water temperature
gauge to ensure that engine temperature is not
abnormally high... Check that water is running from
the tell-tail on the back of the engine..."

This seems to suggest that the telltail water stream may not come out
if the engine is not warm enough. Considering the fact that the
overheating warning horn doesn't sound, the cooling system may not
really have a problem.

However, the Mercury Operation & Maintenance Manual for my 1995 Mercury
115hp outboard said this differently:

"10 Turn ignition key to START ...re-prime until engine
is running smoothly.
11 Check for a steady stream of water flowing out
of the water pump indicator hole.
IMPORTANT: If no water is coming out of the water
pump indicator hole, stop engine..."

This surely seems like I should expect to see telltail water stream
coming out as soon as I start the engine.

Now, I am really confused with this conflicting info. Obviously, I
don't want to risk overheating the motor. Can someone help me with
this?

Thanks in advance for any info.

Jay Chan

I thought the impeller was damaged and could not push water through the
telltail. Last weekend, I opened up the impeller and found that it is
in very good shape. Now, I really don't know why I cannot see the
telltail water stream when I start the motor.

At this point, this problem is beyond my skill level. I will bring the
motor to the dealer next spring and let them to fix it. Meanwhile, I
can only finish half the winterizing process (fuel system is only
partially winterized). I will just have to try my luck and hope that
some of the treated fuel managed to get into the fuel system of the
motor when I ran the motor for 30 seconds two weeks ago (I am betting
on this because I know that I had used up all the old fuel from the
fuel tank before I ran the motor).

Thanks for all the people who have tried to help me. I appreciate
that. I will let people know how this goes next spring when I will
bring the motor to the dealer.

Jay Chan