Is my water pump broken?

[Far-I]

Just picked up a 16 ft starcraft with a 86 50hp merc on the back. Got it for my mother-in-law from a friend that neglected it for 3 years. It had been taken right from the water to storage and sat ever since. After replacing the plugs and cleaning the carb. and changing the lower unit fluid, gas/oil, battery charged, etc.... I got 'er running right away, but no water is spitting out of the cooling hole.

I was wondering if it is common for water pumps to detriorate in storage and why?

Also, I ran it in the yard with the muffs over the intake, and only let it run about 5 seconds 2 different times. How long can you let it run to see if water will shoot out the cooling hole?

Thanks for th advice, i look forward to any advice and help.

[jac714]

I would try cleaning the tupe that leads to the pee hole, spiders adn such tend to make homes in there

[osok]

Ream a piece of safety wire up the pee hole to see if that opens it up, small grit can and will lodge itself in there. Also if this motor spent any of its life in saltwater that can cause some build up causing the same problem.

Yes water pumps can and will go bad. The impellers are rubber and can crack or deteriorate over time. Back home we replaced the water pump about every 3rd year or 4th @ the very latest. You can run it longer than 5 mins, but I wouldn't push it. You can try running it w/o the cowling on and feel each cylinder head and if the head remains fairly cool the pee hole is probably clogged some where.

Also check under the cavitation plate, you might have an additional intake there as well. Some manufactures used to do that as a safeguard in case the side ones became blocked by debris. If there is, put a piece of duct tape over it before you use the muffs again.

[Far-I]

Thanks! Thats great advice. will fumble my way around those tips tomorrow

This boat was stored the last 3 years and before that who knows how old th water pump was, so even if it does start peeing for me it probably doesn't have much life left anyways.

[broken_line]

my 88 merc clasic 50 takes about 2 min before it pees and makes an audiable CLICK then pees

[boatfixer]

If it sat that long, I'd change it even if it did seem to work. As mentioned before, the rubber will deteriorate over time.

[Gus]

My 81 merc takes a good 10-15 seconds to start the stream. You are not going to overheat it by letting it run a minute at idle. But I agree, change the pump now. If you have no idea when it was last done, and it had been neglected, I'd change it.

Just an example, our pontoon motor was still peeing however it would overheat if you were not at half throttle or more. Pulled water pump only to find half of the fins for pushing water gone. My point is, the tell tale stream of water isn't always the tell all.

[Far-I]

Pump should be here in the mail by monday at the latest. Seems easy enough that i could do it myself. Any pointers?

[bobbymalone]

if you think you are gonna be monkeying around with the motor and maybe aren't experienced with outboard repair or maybe even if you are, I would suggest a shop manual. They are maybe $40 but will pay themselves off quickly if you need some repairs that can be done at home.