Tom Francis wrote:
On Sun, 8 Oct 2006 18:28:21 -0400, " JimH" not telling you @
pffftt.com wrote:

Should I expect to see the telltail water stream coming out from the
motor as soon as I start the motor?

Within one or two seconds.

Does the motor need to reach a certain temperature before
the water stream coming out?

No - the tell tale indicates that the impeller is working properly and
that there is water flow through the engine. It works independently
from the from the thermostat.

If you are using mouse ears (flusher ears), make sure you are getting
adequate flow - some ears can be problematic when it comes to
providing water - it all depends on where the water intake is located
on the lower unit.

If you are using a barrel or tub, make sure you have adequate water in
order to get the tell tale to work.

Most likely the problem is lack of water, but you might have a bad
impeller. The only real way to find that out is to make absolutely
sure you have adequate water for the impeller to work on and try it.
Give it ten seconds, then shut it off if no tell tale water stream
appears. At that point, it's the impeller and you need to replace it.

Thanks for the suggestion. The bucket is large and I have enough water
in it to cover the water inlets of the lower unit. Seem like I should
check if the hose connected to the telltail hole is blocked or not, and
I also need to look into replacing the impeller in the lower unit.

At this point, I tend to believe that the impeller may have some
problem. The reason is that last fall when I tried to use an ear-muff
attachment to winterize the motor, I also could not see the telltail
from the motor. I ended up using the bucket to finish the task. Seem
like the impeller might be at its last leg in last fall, and now it is
done with.

Jay Chan