Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?
Thanks for all the great info guys.
So I found the 'pee' hole for this neglected 1978 motor was called the telltale and its up on the cowl.
Mine was clogged with some crud and small screwdriver fixed the problem.
It started shooting water out of the tell tale hole. Sooo cool. Normally it's just a drip or a bit at idle but with the motor racing more with the choke on I got a good stream. So now my curiosity was burning, the steering was fixed, the holes patched and the motor was starting and singing whenever I put the keys to her. I was starting to fall for this old classic. We really bonded over those last four days.
Everytime I showed her some love she made leaps and bounds towards becoming a working functional boat. I knew what she could be. I saw past the raggy carpet, the faded paint and the torn and lumpy seats. No what I saw was a proud and powerful beauty ready for days on the water soaking up the sun and touching the sky on a wakeboard or reeling in the big strippers and blues.
I could not wait another minute!!!! I had to know what she'd do for me on out on the open water. So we took her out on the maiden voyage Saturday night at 6PM before the sun went down... Ah man, we felt the adventure and we felt alive. Just enough day left to put her to the test. We didn't know what to expect, but we knew she'd probably surprise us with something.
The motor stalled when it was shifted into first or reverse unless you shifted fast. I know that's an idle adjustment. We also learned we didn't have reverse because the motor would try to jump outta the water whenever we hit it in reverse... Apparently we have some work to do on that locking mechinism. No fear. Carry on. Spin the boat get her pointed up river!! Bear Grills doesn't use reverse. Throttle down she roars to life. Right up on plane. Ahhh the music of that two stroke at WOT! Beautiful. And she was moving good too. Especially with four people and medium dog on board. The tell tale was nice and strong on the water as well.
Left a nice wake too. Couldn't wait to see a wakeboard behind her. I was pretty much in love with this motor. She was old, but she was beautiful. Like a cougar that knew her way around the gym, she had swagger. I saw marriage in our near future. It started awesome every time I turned that key. Pretty reliable. Pretty awesome, and definitly not afraid to be different then all the other girls. Ahh the seventies must of been a heck of good time...
Then we ran the boat into some 1 foot of water with new england mud down by the prop area of the river. (low tide is very sneaky, that red buoy was not where I was expecting it and the broken depth finder had yet to make into the diagnostics area of my back yard.) The motor was not very happy with us anymore. I really let her down. She was really cranky now. For the first time since we brought her back to life she did not want to start. I probably flooded it or got sediment up into the engine. Don't know.
To make it even more exciting there was the blue lights of the marine patrol flashing in the air a couple hundred yards away over by the red buoy by the bridge... Was that patrol boat signalling us? Was he there escorting that giant 30 ft pleasure boat that was crawling along next to him at a slow creep. We didn't know. But we knew he was probably watching us and we also knew he wasn't coming near us as we were currently stuck on this shallow ledge area of the river with a boat that didnt' want to start ...
After repeated failed attempts to start it after running it in such shallow muck (we pushed the boat to deeper water) it finally started after 20 agonizing long minutes of worrying the battery was dying with daylight hours running thin and the marine patrol probably watching us with binoculars..... It did not like to start nearly as much after this little snafu. I know it's a good time for a water pump check now...
The tell tale did start working again though on the ride back to the dock. Then boat got weak and died once, (maybe air in the gas I'm hoping). So I can see the dock now. I'm thinking about swimming it 100 feet and walking her along shore to the dock. We don't care, I'm just relieved we're not going to be talking to the coasties or the marine patrol making new friends.
So then we give it an optimistic key twist and she starts right up. Ahhh what a relief. Swimming was gonna be cold at 6:45 PM.
But she was still pretty mad at me. She was not starting like she was earlier in the day.
It was harder than usual to start with the muffs on when I got it home. Kind of sad.
Even without the motor running I was getting water out of the tell tale at home with the muffs on after the maiden voyage. That was nice.
Gonna try some brand new gas. I was using half new gas half 3 month old gas (trying to get rid of it).
Ahhh the adventures of free boats. Boy it was fun.
THE PROP DOSENT HAVE TO COME OFF FOR WATER PUMP REPLACEMENT , BUT THE LU (LOWER UNIT) WILL. NOT A HARD JOB. just remember when putting back together that you controler shift handle and LU rae in same gear f/f n/n or r/r. pee hole should be on right side of engine when facing the rear (looking at prop), small hole just on the underside below cowling
