Hello again, I have a Johnson 5 from about 1999 that I use quite often on a small dinghy. I hadn't run it for a couple of months though so I thought i'd start it and run it for 10 minutes in a bucket. No water came out of the telltale even though the leg was well in the bucket and the pickup was about 8 inches under water. After a while steam started coming out of the telltale. I stuck the hose into the bucket and sprayed a jet of water directly at the pickup and water began dribling out of the telltale and continued to do so after I removed the hose. After I stopped and restarted the motor the steam happened again until I used the hose 'trick'. Obviously there is no blockage but i'm wondering if the impeller is at fault but if it is, why does it work after I give it a kickstart with the hose?