Re: 1974 Johnson 9.9
From The Machinest's site:
http://www.sschapterpsa.com/ramblings/Ramblings.html
Good reading for 9.9 Maintenance!
Water Coming out Between Housings if Using Flush Muffs : When using the flushing muffs & a garden hose, you do not need to turn the water faucet valve on high, as it may be way more pressure than needed & can do possible internal damage to the powerhead IF there may be an unknown blockage.
When running the motor under these conditions, if there is water coming out around the shifting rod hole in the lower unit, as shown by arrow below, the following can be the problem. The rubber grommet on the outlet of the water pump, may not be inserted properly mating the pump housing to the copper tube that supplies the water from the pump up & into the bottom inlet into the powerhead. This grommet is held into the water pump housing by 2 ears & the tubing goes down inside it to form a seal. If someone replaced the water pump or impeller & was not careful when reassembling the lower unit to the midsection during final slide up & bolt together, the grommet can get slightly dislodged. You can not see this at the time of reassembly as it is not visible then. It may be not bad enough to harm water flow during regular running in the water, (you could not see it anyway as this would be submerged then) but when running from the flush muffs, & more hose pressure is on than normal, water can be forced out at this area around the shifting rod.
This may or may not be a problem. If the motor runs normal on the boat & shows no sign of overheating, there may a minimal concern. However if there is ANY indication of minimal water, a decreased flow coming out the pee-hole, or any indication of it running hotter than normal, then I would tear it down & refit the old grommet. Or, these grommets have underwent a design change making them more resistant to this problem happening. They have better retention ears, & are taller lending them to be more easier to become a slide fit covering more of the tube, for less of a chance to flop over. One thing I recommend is that you apply a slight amount of grease on both the tube & in the grommet to facilitate this blind assembly process.
