1987 35 hp Merc hot water/lacking water issue

[josh2000ford]

I bought a pontoon/35 horse merc in July and have had nonstop issues with it. It is now converted into a duck hunting rig and I can't even use it because I am stumped on this issue. Its only peeing about 1/2-3/4 of what it did, and it will quickly get steaming hot.

​The pontoon is on a wetland and it does see a lot of weeds and lily pads, as well as churned up mud. One day I was putting along 1/2 throttle and it just quit peeing. Peed fine idoling but after putting it in gear, the stream would dissipate to nothing. I replaced the impeller, cleaned out the pickup vents, tube and even took the head plate off and cleaned that out. The original impeller looked good, as well as the housing. There was some sand in the waterjacket. After blowing everything out, it still doesn't pee 100% and gets hot under load. When I installed the new impeller, I rotated the shaft Clockwise while seating the cover. This was tested in the lake, not with muffs.

​Some repair history is : stator, points, coils, plugs, rectifier, switchbox.

What would be causing this? Exhaust plate? I cant find any good literature on them to know if that could be the issue.

​Also, I notice my starter is sticking, which it never did before. When I turn the key, I will get one rotation and it wont retract. Then all of a sudden it will get in a right spot and turn the motor over fine. Could this be linked to something?

thanks
​Josh

 

[dpmsgeek]

Some of the water lines could be braking down on the inside causing restriction. I had to replace mine this year because of this. Did you do a seal kit with the impeller?

 

[josh2000ford]

I replaced the upper and lower gaskets and the plate was in good shape. What seals are you talking about?

 

[dpmsgeek]

I was referring to the gasket's and the seal that mates up with the water output. My kit from quicksilver included the exhaust gasket and upper, lower housings, gaskets and a seal for the water line.