1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

[mr 88]

Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

Go ahead and copy and paste the worst thing that can happen is one of the moderators yank it,which I doubt they would do.Did you put new plugs in or are you guessing again? Start with new gas and SeaFoam,that old gas is not agreeing with her.

 

[Mi duckdown]

Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

AND still haven't changed the impellar?
Your next story should be intresting.

 

[andrewbabich]

Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

No I didnt' put new plugs in. They are like 4 dollars a piece and I'm a cheapskate. I sanded them down to clean em up when I started to working on the boat.

I will for sure put new gas in it. What do you guys do with your crappy old gas?Burn it in a bonfire? I was thinking of running it through my car or lawn mower. I figured that'd be able to process it.

This boat is so funky I don't know if I want to put any money into it. There are really nice boats from the 90's that are available for like 3 grand right now. I gotta make a decision.

I'm gonna rebuild the quarter size chip in the prop with jb weld tonight.

The tell tale does blow water whenever I run it now, but that doesn't mean my water pump still isn't junk does it?

Do these motors from the late 70's have a warning siren if they start to overheat or will it just blow up? Is there a good way to determine while out on the water if the cooling system is working adequately?

 

[gwukena]

Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

They blow up, put a water pressure gauge on, that way you can monitor without having too look back at tell tale. No offense but you own a boat and are worried about $4 spark plugs?

Check out what you get for $3000, nine times out of ten, somebody else's junk. There's the odd jewel out there, but there hard to find.

 

[andrewbabich]

Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

Where does the water pressure gauge go? That sounds like a good idea.

I would have no problem paying 12 dollars for plugs, but they seem to be firing fine and they look good when I pull them out.

The boat actually isn't mine, it was given to my friend for free he's been 's too lazy/ not mechanically inclined enough to actually do a thing with it all summer. I towed it for him and he's been storing it in my yard all summer. Eventually I said f it and I'm gonna just fix this thing myself when I got tired of not having enough power on my 50 hp johnson.

So now I've got it running and he's starting to want to use it. Yet I kind of want to be like 'hey I've done all the work and put the money into it (steering cable and gas line), you haven't done jack back off' That?s another reason I'm being a cheapskate.

I agree you're getting other peoples problems when you buy a used boat, but nothing like this rusted up sunbeaten down neglected thing.

I'd buy a newer boat in a heartbeat, but the low weight of these old 1978 tri hulls are way better for towing with my Subaru legacy.

 

[gwukena]

Re: 1978 85 hp merc not 'peeing' with muffs on. Waterpump problem?

Oh yes, you gotta love doing work for friends. On that particular motor, not sure if you have a pipe plug in the cylinder block cover (the one where spark plugs go through), on the inline 6, there was a plug between two spark plug holes off to one side, that's where the pressure gauge plumbed into. Parts breakdown of 77 85 hp doesn't show it, 78 80hp does. Did you ever find the s/n?