Mercury outboard flushing.

[cbrunick57]

Have a 95' Mercury 60 HP. Found a sandbar on the river and I assume I picked some sand up, long story short the tell tale isnt pumping like it should, I assume I just have a pebble jammed somewhere. I already checked the elbow coming out of the motor, the tube and the nipple at the pee hole. Is there a way to effectively flush this system Besides just running the motor on muffs. I would like to try and clear any potential clogs before dropping the lower unit. I just replaced the water pump last year.

[Pat K]

With the engine running on muffs or in the lake, take a piece of heavy weed whipper line and feed it into the tell tale tube. Hopefully it will dislodge something that will be washed out by the stream of water.

It also could be because sand can destroy a new water pump impeller.

[tcwin]

When this happened to me;

I took off the screen on the lower unit - couple screws hold then in.

Took off the pee hole piece on the top of the motor.

Hooked up a hose to the top of the motor and back flushed the system.

Takes about 15 minutes or so.

Good luck.

[FM_Mike]

If your motor has a thermostat, check the thermostat housing. Take the cover of the housing of and look for debris in the housing unit. Sand and pebbles can build up there and effect water flow. Also, if a piece of rock has gotten into the springs of the thermostat, it can stop it from opening or closing correctly.

Mike

[cbrunick57]

Got bored tonight and dropped the lower unit. The area around the water pump housing had a lot of sand, cleaned it all out, impeller was in good shape so put everything back together and will run it tomorrow. See how it goes.

[Hawg]

For all that work a new water pump would have been a good investment even if it appeared ok.

[leechlake]

the many times my motor has quit spitting out the tell tale was almost always related to the boat landing shallow water. I either blow into the hole or suck out (yes it looks goofy and can be kind of gross) and every time that's solved the problem on the water.

I'm sure this isn't the long term solution but solves it so you can fish still.