I was helpng a friend put his fathers 1963 Elgin With a 1968 Evinrude 40 HP back together over the weekend. We were told the motor need a water pump. We put the pump in and it still did not pump water. Since the old pump was in pieces we thought maybe we put the pump back in the wrong way so we flipped the blades. It still did not pump water. I then pulled the thermostat(or what was left of it) out of the top of the powerhead. All that was in there was a black insert of somesort and a wax pellet. Is this what the used at thermostat back then or is something missing?<br />If we fired the motor up with out the stat in it it still would not pump water. However, if I loosened the three screws on the stat housing and essentially bleeding the system she would pump water like crazy. Now, does the stat need to be in there as some sort of check valve? Is it possible that because we could not find the muffs and were running it in a trash can that there was a lack of water problem? We had the water level up over the intake screen. If you keep the motor running after bleeding it would pump water fine, but if you shut it off you would have to bleed again.<br />Any help would be greatly appreciated. My friend ordered the stat and will have it tomorrow.<br />Thanks
