It's Alive! But it's not peeing!

[adt2]

After 2+ years, I finally managed to get the transom repaired and the '57 Johnson 35 reassembled (new starter, yo) and hung on the boat. After a brief trip to town to get 2-cycle oil, we were ready to punch the button and see what happened.

What happened was, the motor pretty much fired right up just like I'd used it yesterday. However, I'm not getting a pee stream out the aft exhaust port thing (about 2/3 the way up the shaft). Shouldn't water be coming out of there? I shut the motor off after about 30 seconds, remembering something about replacing an impeller...

 

[Chris1956]

Those old motors had a spitter out the hole in the midsection. The water expelled should be about 143* F. Water only exits when the thermostat when it opens, so the motor need to be warm.

BTW - Unless you have the rare flusher device, you need to run it in a barrel.

 

[adt2]

It's in a barrel. So you're saying it needs to run for a bit before water should shoot out? About how long?

 

[bouttime007]

Id say 30 seconds should suffice.

It wont pee, but spit like Chris said.

24/1 on the oil!

 

[adt2]

I let it run for several minutes just now, and it never did spit (and the top of the motor got hot enough that I couldn't touch it). Turned it off - better safe than sorry. Also noticed some milky white water floating near the underwater exhaust area, which I remember reading somewhere is bad news about something.

Any ideas? A) What do I do about the not-spitting (new impeller?), and 2) What does milky white indicate and how do I remedy that?

EDIT: One thing I forgot...while I was standing there watching it, I could see a (very small) spark coming out from where the spark plug wire enters the plug boot. I assume that's not normal?

 

[Chris1956]

Well, it sounds like it is time to test the thermostat. If it test as good, then likely the impeller is bad. Any idea when it was changed?

Milky white water is not bad, as 2 cycle oil can become that color, when mixed with water.

Arcing at the spark plug boot is not good. See if you can replace the boots.

 

[adt2]

Impeller was changed in April 2012, used a couple of times that summer, and has been sitting either outside or in the barn since then. Argh re: the spark plug boots...I replaced them in April 2012 also. Maybe I screwed it up.

 

[bouttime007]

Impeller could have dried up since then, wouldn't hurt to put in a new one.

Shouldn't see a spark from the boot.