Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

[Grounded]

Hello there. I have a pair of Evinrude 30 hp (model E30ELCRR, S/no A392979/80, 1984) and I have recently had to change the thermostat in both due to the overheat alarm sounding. I now find no stream is emerging from the tell-tale on the port motor. I have a Clymer manual for the motor, but the process of dismantling/reassembly of the gear case to replace the water pump and/or impeller does not seem very clear. Are there any particular points I should be careful of, such as bolts prone to shearing etc? (I did have that problem with the head cover bolts and both cylinder heads had to come off!) Oh, so far as I can establish from the original owner, both motors still have their original water pumps/impellers. Many thanks <br />Chris (NZ)

 

[nordy]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Hello Chris,<br /><br />I have a Johnson 30hp, I think it's the same thing.<br />For help see here:<br /> http://www.boatingsolutions.com/johnevingearcases.htm <br />You must remove the lower unit first (4 screws, 1 nut).<br />Then take off the shift rod connector in the window where the water gets into the lower unit.<br />Now you can take off the whole assembly.<br />Be careful the new water pump or new impeller<br />and gasket is mounted completely like the old one.<br />If you have the impeller edges bent into the (wrong) rotating direction, you may destroy the impeller with first turns.<br />Don't forget to mount the impeller key.<br />Put some grease at the end of the drive shaft and the upper shift rod, so the latter might smoothly get through the narrow o-ring in the water pump housing.<br />Fix the water tube and the spacer first in the upper unit, and finally in the lower unit.<br />Turn the flywheel a little bit if the lower unit wouldn't go completely in.<br />Don't pull the drive shaft out of the lower unit.<br />Otherwise the sealing might be damaged.<br /><br />Good luck.<br /><br />Nordy

 

[Grounded]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Cheers, Nordy, your input is much appreciated. It seems the parts have to be ordered from Australia, at over twice the price quoted on US sites, so It will be a few days before I get back on the water. <br />One further thing though, is it necessary to remove the prop? The manual seems to start the process with that, but the logic escapes me.<br />Thanks again

 

[nordy]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Hello Chris,<br /><br />no prop removing is necessary.<br /><br />The prices of genuine Bombardier parts in Germany are similar to those in New Zealand, they are twice ore more above the US prices.<br /><br />Nordy

 

[Grounded]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

In anticipation of the arrival of the new parts I have commenced the dismantling procedure, closely following the manual of course! The impeller is undoubtedly knacked, even to my untrained eye, and one vane is pointing in the opposite direction to it's mates, which seems a tad odd to me.<br />However, whilst the manual and real life may not be total strangers, they are not much mor ethan passing acquaintances, to my eyes at least. One or two things do not match and I would like to seek advice from the obvious expertise which abounds herein.<br /><br />1) after removing the lower unit, the manual requires me to "remove the water tube from the pump housing", only the water tube remained in the upper housing and seems to enter the pump body via an "o" ring or similar. Is this a design change with which the manual is unaware?<br />2) the manual also requires me to "slide the impeller housing up and off the drive shaft". Upon removing the impeller housing, the drive shaft came up with it, out of the bottom unit (where presumably it engages with the prop shaft) and there is no way it would come off the top of the shaft as the shaft at the top (splined end) is wider than the impeller housing through which it passes. Is this another change or do I have a FUBAR situation?<br />3) I find no gasket or seal, nor sign of any sealant, between the mating faces of the gearcase and motor housing (the manual shows none either in this case). How is a watertight seal achieved? Should I employ a silicone sealant? Or go metal-to-metal and hope for the best?<br />Many thanks chaps, I look forward to your responses.

 

[oldboat1]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Chris,<br /><br />Remove the stainless steel plate that rests under the impeller (the "wear plate") and insure that it is undamaged and smooth. You can polish it with fine grained sandpaper -- point is to insure that there is no corrosion on the top or bottom. I would then replace the wear plate, and place the driveshaft back into the lower unit. Insure that the shaft key/pin is in place to hold the impeller -- insures that the impeller spins with the shaft.<br /><br />You should be able to work the impeller off the shaft at the top (engine end). A slight bit of corrosion will cause the impeller to stick, as the tolerance is very close. Clean up the shaft, again using fine sandpaper if that is necessary. A little oil or grease will help ease the impeller off -- check first to be sure there is no pin under the splines (present in some models). If there is a pin, remove it and replace it after the new impeller is placed on the shaft.<br /><br />It sounds like the impeller was intact, and should have been pumping water. You may find that there is a blockage elsewhere if the engine was not getting water -- possible too that the water pump and cooling system was working fine, but that only the tell-tale was blocked (assuming you got into the repair because you weren't seeing water from the tell-tale).<br /><br />There is no seal between the surfaces of the housing. Check to be sure the surfaces are smooth, but there is nothing necessary beyond that. Also, the water tube is supposed to remain in the housing at the engine. The tube slips into the grommet in the lower unit when you reassemble (need to insure that the tube is inserted properly in place, but should slide in without difficulty when the lower unit is lined up).<br /><br /> Curt

 

[Grounded]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Well the new pump arrived and everything seemed to go back together easily enough (perhaps too easily?). Upon starting the engine there is a flow from the tell-tale, but it is weak compared to the other (twin) engine with a much older pump. After a few minutes the flow trickles down to next to nothing. The power head gets quite hot, but not too hot to keep my hand on it for a few seconds. The overheat alarm does not sound (and I have checked it works ok by grounding the brown wire)On stopping and re-starting the engine there is once again a weak flow.<br />What could this be? Have I re-assembled incorrectly in some way? or could there be a blockage somewhere? If so, where should I start looking?<br /> <br />Many thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Did you make sure the "Vanes" of the impeller were facing the correct direction when installing it? Did you re-install the "key" to hold the impeller to the shaft?

 

[K Hultgre]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Is this run in saltwater? Water passages could be cloged with salt residue. Also, Could be a bad "new" thermostat. Take it out and test in pan on the stove with cooking thermometer for temp reference.

 

[Grounded]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Hi Rick, yes I am sure I did, though the impeller was difficult to get into the cup. If (and I emphasise if) I had inadvertently turned the drive shaft anticlockwise would that cause the impeller to malfunction? I suppose the only sure way to check would be to drop it off again?<br /><br />Kevin, how and where would I check for blockages that might cause an intermittent flow, such as I seem to have? And would a faulty thermostat affect the flow from the tell-tale? I thought that was a direct feed from the water pump and by-passed the actual cooling circuit? I can whip the cover off again to check. I do recall the chap in the shop supplying me with a rubber thermostat seal from a mercury engine, saying it was the same, I wonder if perhaps it isn't/wasn't?<br />Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

[OBJ]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Grounded....did you try running a wire up the "pee" hole to see if it was plugged up?

 

[Grounded]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Morning Outboard Jim, yes I did, and I also removed the tubing which feeds the tell-tale and that is clear also. What concerns me is that there might be a blockage behind the plate from which the tell-tale feed tube exits. That looks like a pig of a job to remove, and probably a power head out of casing exercise. Would I be right on that?<br />Oh, and it is salt water use these motors have.

 

[OBJ]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Mornin' Grounded....well afternoon now.<br /><br />There are some products on the market, I think, that you can use to flush out the motor and remove salt deposits. Can't remember right off hand. I'm sure one of our salt water friends would know. Maybe this would help. I know tearing down a salt water engine can be a bear.<br /><br />You might also try some compressed air in the pee hole. May just blow it out enough to get a stream going.<br /><br />Keep us posted.

 

[Solittle]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Chris - The product that OBJ is referring to is called Salt-a-Way. Before I'd do that I'd take the thermostat cover off and drop the lower unit. Connect a hose to the water pick-up tube and backflush the motor. The water should come out of the thermostat casing and give you a sense if there is a blockage or not. Put in new thermostats, reassemble and test.<br /><br />If you do have a blockage pull the heads first and have a look see and continue with the flushing process. Use compressed air if needed.

 

[OBJ]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Thanks solittle. Don't wanna jump this thread but I'm not familiar with the Salt-a-Way product. Can ya' give me an idea of how it's used and when you use it. Living on fresh water don't give me much use for the stuff but always nice to know.<br /><br />Thanks....Jim

 

[Grounded]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Just to close this one off (I fervently hope) I had put off dismantling the motor, in the hope of divine inspiration I guess! Anyway I fired her up and not a drip from the pee-hole. I took the feed to the pee-hole off, sucked it, blew it, waggled a piece of wire up the feed to it, fired it up again and ....nary a drip. Bugger. So I pushed my piece of fence wire up the pee-hole and lo and behold a stream an 18yr old on a stag do would be proud of.<br />Ran it for 20 mins on muffs, up to 3k revs, in gear, out of gear and no signs of over heating, so it looks sorted (fingers crossed). Thanks to all who assisted. This is one awesome site!

 

[OBJ]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

WAY TA' GO GROUNDED!!!!! Always nice to hear success stories. <br /><br />PS...don't be a stranger here....drop in sometime. Good place to chew the fat is Dockside Chat. Try it sometime.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Evinrude 30 no water from tell tale

Good job! Sometimes persistence pays off!