Outboard Tell Tail Only Dribbling

[Ray R]

Hi Raiders, Last Friday arvo, Hutcho and I went for a quick plastic throw , anyway during our quick session we went over a few shallow areas and on the way back to the ramp I noticed the tell tail was only dribbling , it usually spurts out strongly, it was later cleared by Hutcho using some whipper snipper cord, my question is if the tell tail is not working properly because it might sucked up a bit of sand or weedy snotty stuff, is it advised to stop the motor or is it okay to still run around in the water and clean it out when you get home..

Thanks Raiders...

[moses]

mate it could be just a salt build up u try putting a bit of whipper snipper cord up it to unblock i t

[tumra]

mate you have sucked in sand into your water pump section. Same problem happened to me. You are gonig to need to open it up and remove the sand (if you know how too) but you will have to replace a number of gaskets.

I was told that that as long as some water is coming out its ok because it is just an indication as to whether the water is being pumped by the water filter it doesnt actually cool the engine (or so i have been told).

[miller]

hi mate

fit a new impela and go from there i sucked sand into my engine and it damaged the

impela changed it out and away i went again

cheers

miller

[Bruce the Postie]

G'day Ray,

If your going to be digging up sand around Bribane Waters with your prop, i strongly suggest that you contact Gosford Council and offer your services to dredge new channel from Little Box Head to say 1/2 Tide Rocks or maybe Kilcare to Wagstaff.

Im sure that if you start now you will have the job finished before the council has stopped dicking around.

Cheers ,

Bruce

[a boat]

Hi Ray, if you have sucked up enough sand you will have damaged your impeller and it really is not a hard or expensive job to remove and inspect the impeller and replace the impeller. We have seen all sorts of things sucked up into the water pump like small crabs thru to shells and these can cause problems and worse case powerhead failures.

Cheers,

Huey.

[Robbielites]

On my Johnson 115hp The thermostats had a kind of filter on them that could get blocked. They never did but it was an easy fix if it happened, just unscrew them give them a rinse and pop them back in..

Is it possible your motor has a similar setup?

Robbie.

Edited September 26, 2008 by Robbielites

[Ray R]

On my Johnson 115hp The thermostats had a kind of filter on them that could get blocked. They never did but it was an easy fix if it happened, just unscrew them give them a rinse and pop them back in..

Is it possible your motor has a similar setup?

Robbie.

G'day Robbie, it's a 90 hp Mercury, I spoke to Hutcho (the boat owner) and he told me that he flushed it again and it is now working fine, the water jet is hard and strong, guess the little bit of whatever is now cleared.

[Dreamtime]

I had similar concerns on a much smaller engine a few years back, and when I took the engine to the dealer he marked the engine with a marker similar to a crayon. If the engine overheated the marker would change colour, which it did, to indicate that it was overheating. Obviously with that result, further investigation would be necessary.

Maybe you could purchase this device and test the engine yourself with the flushing ears attached.

[IWANNABROCK]

I had similar concerns on a much smaller engine a few years back, and when I took the engine to the dealer he marked the engine with a marker similar to a crayon. If the engine overheated the marker would change colour, which it did, to indicate that it was overheating. Obviously with that result, further investigation would be necessary.

Maybe you could purchase this device and test the engine yourself with the flushing ears attached.

They are engineer's crayon's I think,we used them at tafe when I was an apprentice diesel mechanic, there was different colours for different temp,

[Ray R]

Thanks Raiders for your input, looks like it was only a little sand blockage , all is okay now.. Thanks agin for the info.. Cheers...