'82 Johnson 115 Water Pump Frustration

[yt]

I had my lower unit seals done by a shop in my area. They also replaced the water pump. When I came to the yard we fired it up and water was coming out of the pee hole. Two days later I drop it in the river.. no water. Take it back to the shop. A couple days later they tell me the key for the impeller fell off. They used the old key on the new impeller. They put in a new key In the process of putting the lower unit back on they broke some sort of plastic fitting. Two days later after the part comes in they fix that. They fire it up and again no water from the pee hole. They blew air through the pee hose and the water jackets and it all seems clear. So now after goin back and forth and three weeks later I might not have the boat for this weekend. I wonder if the new key fell off and what could cause that?

The old pump was working just fine. What in the heck is goin on here? It's a water pump! Pretty simple thing.

 

[JimeeB]

Re: '82 Johnson 115 Water Pump Frustration

the key is the key....
Sounds to me like they knocked the key out (again)while installing the impeller'
This is an easy thing to do. however if this is a reputable shop, they should be aware of this and thus take precautions to prevent it from happening...
also I am wondering , where did the other key go????? hmmm.
Aside from that have you had the thermostat checked???.
Wish i could be of more help but it sounds to me like you have covered pretty much everything. or perhaps impeller installed with vanes going the wrong direction??? just a suggestion..
hope you get out on the water this weekend........

 

[jtexas]

Re: '82 Johnson 115 Water Pump Frustration

"the key fell out" sounds like a joke.

Obviously once installed, that key ain't going nowhere. If it fell out, it hadda been during installation, before they put the housing on.

I absolutely can not imagine any way in which the key can fail, after you observed it working the first time around.

The water tube guide is a plastic fitting but its a pretty beefy plastic. Might break if you dropped the engine block on it. But I imagine that if you damaged it somehow or another on your first attempt it could work ok in the yard then fail subsequently. There might be some other plastic fittings in there I don't know or forgot about.

I'd really be curious to know how this turns out.