Have you ever.......

[ezmobee]

Reassembled a major portion of something and then realized you forgot a crucial part? Tonight I replaced the impeller and housing on my 85 Johnson. What a pain in the *****. I think I will happily pay someone else to do that the next time. Anyway, I got the whole thing reassembled and was tightening the last bolt on the LU when I realized I FORGOT THE IMPELLER KEY!!!! AHHH!! Can't get much more crucial than that. Had to tear the whole thing back down again. I was thrilled. Then, I wanted to test it out since I was replacing the impeller due to the motor not pumping at all. I dragged the boat out, put the motor in this big truck box I have, filled it up with water.......dead battery. I had left the ignition on for the past 24 hours since messing with it last night. What fun. The new impeller better have fixed my cooling problem or I'm pushing my boat and trailer down the hill.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Have you ever.......

i felt the same way yesterday. replaced the inpeller on the 58 johnny, went to start it, and no fire top plug, lost a coil. new i was going to replace them, just had not ordered. so i decided to take the waverunner for a spin. got to the ramp, and one of the transom plugs was missing. i came home, and took my frustration out on several beers.

 

[Rudy Brown]

Re: Have you ever.......

All the time. I had to drop my LU 3 times before I got the impellor right. Dont feel so bad. The ss cup twisted in the housing causing a major leak. That was the first. The second was left the exhause housing out. Dang thing went together too easy. And 3rd was I had a leak and it turned out to be the o-ring on the shift rod. At least now I can remove and put back on the LU in about 15 minutes, blindfolded.

 

[Pony]

Re: Have you ever.......

Waterpump stories seem to be pretty common......

The first time I changed mine, I got it all back together and fired her up. Everything was perfect, and she was spitting a really nice stream of water.

It was at this point I decided to reconnect the shift rod (I had manually put the lu in nuetral just to test start it before I messed with the rod). On my motor there are two nylon brushings that hold the coupling assy together right behind the intake screens. Its pretty easy.................when you dont absolutely destroy one of the brushings. So I start calling dealers all over the place, and no one has it. I get one ordered, pick it up a few days later and get it all back together.

I have just now come to realize that I didnt put any gasket sealer on the lower unit bolts to help keep them from seizing. To avoid un-coupling the shift rod again I took out one bolt at a time and lubed it up and put it back in. I get to the very LAST bolt and I snapped it off in the housing.

I got mad, some tools went flying and I left it alone for the day. Went back to the dealer and picked up a bunch of extra bolts. I prayed the whole way home that I could get that bolt out. Luckily I could get vice grips on it and back it out............

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Have you ever.......

Pony, bolts breaking or stripping out are the WORST. That has happened to me at least two times with auto repairs. Most recently with a thermostat housing bolt that stripped out in the block. I also once had an alternator bolt break off. That one was especially frustrating because I was trying to fix my car in the parking lot in which it died and I would have been good to go but the bolt broke so I had to have it towed and then pay someone else to do a job I was more than capable of doing.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Have you ever.......

How about this for frustration.... I was going on travel for a week in October, so I decided to pull my speedboat out of the saltwater, until I returned, in case of storms. A few days earlier my wife had crashed the vehicle I use to pull the boat, but she had borrowed a truck with a hitch, so no problem right? Well she lost the truck keys just before I was ready to pull the boat. So I realize the boat will just have to stay in until I return. On the way out the door on Sunday afternoon, I say "keep an eye on the speedboat, and don't let it sink". Hollow words I know!

Well Tuesday night I get a message (too scared to call) saying "boat sunk at the dock". It stayed sunk until Friday when I got home from travel and refloated it.

The other bad news is that I had just installed a rebuilt powerhead a few months before. I had to tear the entire engine down to its bearings, clean 'em up and reassemble. I also had to replace all the electronics and even scrape barnacles off the block. Times like that I wish I was single.