"mmc" wrote in message
ng.com...
My little 1993 6hp Johnson got hot last weekend when i tried to take the
Mrs on an afternnon sail.
Luckily noticed the lack of "pee" from the little outlet that let's one
know the cooling system is doing it's thing before it actually overheated
and shut it down.
Anchored off to the side of the canal leading out to the Banana River and
immediately a young couple offered a tow.
Nice people, boaters. Not all but more than not.
Ordered a new impeller (knew I was pushing the age on the old one) and
replacement parts for the thermostat. When I disassembled the thermostat,
it was clogged with salt, cleaned it up and replaced all parts. On
inspection, the parts didn't need replaced so I have spares. The impeller
was old and stiff but hadn't failed. Reassembled everything.
Fired it up in a bucket and after a few minutes the pee stream stopped
again. Pulled the lower unit again and rigged a small bilge pump (powered
with a jump start power pack) to flush the cooling system through the
water tube that normally goes to the water pump. Flushed the system with
vinager for about 3 hours. Cleaned the thermostat again and this time it
was fouled with sand, which I guess had been trapped from an old grounding
(I've had the motor for 3 years and always on the sailboat whose rudder is
about 2 foot deeper in the water than the motor so this must happened in
the distant past on another boat) so I guess the vinager flush dissolved
the salt that had the sand trapped in the system.
Flushed it all a couple more hours and reassembled. Fired it up and it
pees freely now and is cooling well.
So, my new plan is to flush EVERY DAMN TIME I use the motor in salt water
like I know I'm supposed to and do a periodic vinagar rinse.

That's what I do on my Johnson 25...maybe after 2 or three times if I'm away
from home.

On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 21:18:42 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:


That's what I do on my Johnson 25...maybe after 2 or three times if I'm away
from home.

Know how you feel. I try to flush my Johnson after 2 or 3 times too.

It's always a big relief.

BTW, Johnson's Johnson isn't as big as Johnson would have you believe.

In fact, I don't think Johnson's a Johnson at all. But he's certainly
a Johnson Cranium.

"Zombie of Woodstock" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 13:50:35 -0400, "mmc" wrote:

Anchored off to the side of the canal leading out to the Banana River and
immediately a young couple offered a tow.

I would have left you there. :)

So, my new plan is to flush EVERY DAMN TIME I use the motor in salt water
like I know I'm supposed to and do a periodic vinagar rinse.

Well that's unique - vinegar huh? Makes sense, but I've never heard
about that trick.

Nice trouble shooting job, although if it had been me, I'd probably
have replaced the parts anyway and bought some new spares. In
particular where it obviously had sucked sand at some point.

But that's me. A fiscal New England conservative I ain't when it
comes to boats.

I understand Salt-Away is mostly vinegar.

On Jun 9, 6:42*pm, "mmc" wrote:
"Zombie of Woodstock" wrote in messagenews:audt259b8rj3ckoja73jm0hp0gs30skd2k@4ax .com...

On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 13:50:35 -0400, "mmc" wrote:

Anchored off to the side of the canal leading out to the Banana River and
immediately a young couple offered a tow.

I would have left you there. *:)

Ha! thanks..



So, my new plan is to flush EVERY DAMN TIME I use the motor in salt water
like I know I'm supposed to and do a periodic vinagar rinse.

Well that's unique - vinegar huh? *Makes sense, but I've never heard
about that trick.

I'll be honest and admit I read online about using vinager or phosphoric
acid. I opted for the vinager since I know it's a real mild acid and didn't
have to wory about anything too strong. Online advice seems to come without
any warrentees.



Nice trouble shooting job, although if it had been me, I'd probably
have replaced the parts anyway and bought some new spares. In
particular where it obviously had sucked sand at some point.

But that's me. *A fiscal New England conservative I ain't when it
comes to boats.

The metal parts looked fine after I cleaned them up. How often does a
thermostat like these go bad? By the time I need to do this again, I'll
probably have lost my "spares" or forgot about them anyway. I like to
pretend I'm saving money with stuff like this.

You can test your thermostat with a pan of water. Heat the water on
the stove until it reaches the operating temp of the thermostat and
see if it opens.

"Calif Bill" wrote in message
m...

"Zombie of Woodstock" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 13:50:35 -0400, "mmc" wrote:

Anchored off to the side of the canal leading out to the Banana River and
immediately a young couple offered a tow.

I would have left you there. :)

So, my new plan is to flush EVERY DAMN TIME I use the motor in salt water
like I know I'm supposed to and do a periodic vinagar rinse.

Well that's unique - vinegar huh? Makes sense, but I've never heard
about that trick.

Nice trouble shooting job, although if it had been me, I'd probably
have replaced the parts anyway and bought some new spares. In
particular where it obviously had sucked sand at some point.

But that's me. A fiscal New England conservative I ain't when it
comes to boats.

I understand Salt-Away is mostly vinegar.

Expensive vinegar.

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:39:47 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Jun 9, 6:42 pm, "mmc" wrote:
"Zombie of Woodstock" wrote in
messagenews:audt259b8rj3ckoja73jm0hp0gs30skd2k@4ax .com...

On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 13:50:35 -0400, "mmc" wrote:

Anchored off to the side of the canal leading out to the Banana River
and
immediately a young couple offered a tow.

I would have left you there. :)

Ha! thanks..



So, my new plan is to flush EVERY DAMN TIME I use the motor in salt
water
like I know I'm supposed to and do a periodic vinagar rinse.

Well that's unique - vinegar huh? Makes sense, but I've never heard
about that trick.

I'll be honest and admit I read online about using vinager or phosphoric
acid. I opted for the vinager since I know it's a real mild acid and
didn't
have to wory about anything too strong. Online advice seems to come
without
any warrentees.



Nice trouble shooting job, although if it had been me, I'd probably
have replaced the parts anyway and bought some new spares. In
particular where it obviously had sucked sand at some point.

But that's me. A fiscal New England conservative I ain't when it
comes to boats.

The metal parts looked fine after I cleaned them up. How often does a
thermostat like these go bad? By the time I need to do this again, I'll
probably have lost my "spares" or forgot about them anyway. I like to
pretend I'm saving money with stuff like this.

You can test your thermostat with a pan of water. Heat the water on
the stove until it reaches the operating temp of the thermostat and
see if it opens.


The failures I have seen were more of the broken part variety. The
part with the thin metal bail breaks (corrodes away) and the
thermostat can't open.

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Bad%20therrmostat.jpg

I have never seen a pellet stop working unless the whole mechanism was
a ball of crud. Even then, if you cleaned it, the pellet was still
working.

The thermostat for this little motor is a handfull of parts
(http://www.crowleymarine.com/brp_par...rams/20442.cfm (good site for
IPBs on a lot of motors)). I guess the "vernatherm assembly" could go bad,
but with the exception of the rubber diaphram the rest is pretty solid. I
know springs can lose tension over time but I'll hold onto the rest as
spares. The old springs looked to be the same length as the new.