This afternoon I took the gear case off this motor and examined the
impeller... Its still there, feels like rubber, has a few cracks in the
rubber, and surely appears like it could use a new one... Other than that
I'm thinking the seal at the top of the pump should be changed, and right
now I think that's about it... not sure what else... I'm going to go and try
to clear this pee hole, but thing is I can't get the hose off the motor as
its in a very tight spot.
So I need some fine flexible wire if I'm to route it up that hole and clear
the clog...


"Camilo" wrote in message
...
"Chris" wrote

This motor has been out of water, and sitting for much of the last 8 or
so
years. Its a 72 80hp 4 cylinder. The guy I bought it from says that
likely
the impeller needs to be changed as it would have dried out... Would
that
be
correct? Any ideas? The motor was perfect when it was last used 8+
years
ago...

I don't want to run it too much until the water gets figured out. From
what
I'm guessing without looking into too much detail yet, I have to take
the
lower end (gearcase) off to get to this impeller.

My take would be to change the impellor and check over the water pump,
regardless of what the tell tale was doing - just an important routine
thing
to do, especially with an older motor. So do that regardless. Buy
yourself
a shop manual to guide you. I did my first impellor this spring with a
Clymer's generic Merc manual and it went fine. A real merc shop manual
might be better. If you're not into it, it's not an expensive (in boating
terms!) thing for a mechanic to do - if you can get them to get to it this
time of year!

On the other hand, my big outboard has constant tell tale issues -
intermittent clogging. At first, it freaked me out and I'd always stop
and
trouble shoot to make sure the water was cooling the engine. It always
involved just blowing (by mouth) out the tell tale line or reaming it with
a
thin wire. But it was a hassle. Then I installed a pressure gauge - it
was
fairly easy and I just don't worry about the tell tale anymore. That
could
be an option for the longer term if you have chronic tell tale issues.

Cam