1981 evinrude 140 alarm

[lil' beaver]

New to me boat. First time on the water today started right up and idled for about 2 min. then got a solid alarm beep. Shut it down and let it sit for 5 min and tried it again. No alarm and started right up then the same thing happened. Repeated the same process with the same alarm a 3rd time a called it a day. Engine pee stream stong all 3 times. Ran it on the hose for about 5 min with no alarms.

Is this an overheat alarm or something else? what should I try to remedy the situation. Previous owner said the impeller was replaced 2 years ago and the boat was only used 3 times since. Boat has sat for a year w/o being run.

 

[Bosunsmate]

overheat, check thermostats and check the hole in the water thermostat casing is not blocked up

 

[emdsapmgr]

A strong telltale is an indication that the impeller is working. It does not indicate that the cooling water is circulating thru the powerhead and exiting back into the midsection. Likely a problem inside the thermostat housing, as Bosun indicated. If one stat is stuck shut it will overheat that side of the block. Agree, check the two cooling pinholes in the thermostat valve body to make sure they are open-or it will overheat.

 

[lil' beaver]

thank for the input, I will check them out and update.

 

[lil' beaver]

Maybe a little update. I had the chance to run down to the boat on my way home from work. I found a disconnected wire on the starboard side to what I believe is one on the temp sensors. Am I correct in that assumption? Would this cause the alarm issue or should I proceed with checking out the thermostats?

Here is the pic. The red circles show the two ends that were disconnected. they are now connected but I didn't get a chance to run it.

 

[Chinewalker]

If the wire that goes to the harness grounds against something, then it will blip the horn. That's actually a test for the horn function, to ground either of the brown wires to the block. The wire in your picture doesn't appear to have an easy ground path to anything nearby, but it could have been moved.

 

[Bosunsmate]

id fix up those stickers before they go on a trip into your reed block

 

[emdsapmgr]

The overheat switches are a tan or brown colored wire. The switch and the harness wire both have knife connectors on the wire ends so that you can make a positive connection. Then there is a rubber boot (with two small tab-grips) that slips over the connector.

 

[lil' beaver]

Well, I finally got around to working on replacing the stats on friday. even with me being very careful, I managed to break off the center bolt. Those bolts have not been out in a long time and had bad corrosion. I have been soaking it with pb blaster since Friday and am going to try to extract today with an e z out.

On another note, the stats were trash and corroded shut. Just ugly. That very well could be my overheat problem. We shall see. I started to service my other 140 and get it ready to swap if this e z out process goes bad. Wish me luck.