MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

[i'monaboat]

I have a MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 that I replaced the water pump kit on the lower unit. After struggling with it last night to get it back together I tried turning it over and it wouldn't start. Before I made the replacement we had it cranked up and running with some muffs on there. We found that the old impeller was shredded and there were pieces of it in the line and down where the water comes in behind the prop. We cleaned all of that out and everything was back like it was, but we couldn't get it to start. Is there anything that we could have done to cause it not to start after replacing that impeller? I will mention that it was probably in the low 50's so it was a bit chilly where I live which is in Alabama. We were thinking that maybe it had to do with the cold weather.

 

[ussoldier_1984]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

Have you checked for spark? It has nothing to do with cold weather

 

[emoney]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

It should run without the lower unit on, so I can't imagine it's anything you did.
Did you remove the plug wires or anything similar when you went to work on the lower?

 

[i'monaboat]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

No I haven't checked for spark. I also have not removed any of the plug wires. The wires and plugs need to be changed, but we haven't do that yet. I was told that maybe I needed to give it a little gas and try to turn it over. What do you think?

 

[ussoldier_1984]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

I would check for spark first, its not hard then if your getting spark try to crank it with 2 pumps of the throttle to squirt some fuel from the accelerator pump down the carb

 

[bloodyknuckletech]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

Is it cracking or nothing at all? If it cranks and no fire check the killswitch at the shifter

 

[i'monaboat]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

We finally got it cranked. It acted like it wanted to fire, but never did. I sprayed some starter fluid in the carb and it sputtered a couple of times. The battery started going dead so we hooked up the cables to the truck and then after a couple of more times turning it over it finally fired. The repair we did to the impeller seemed to work because the water was coming out of the exhaust like it was supposed to. The temp held steady at 150 even after reving it up to 3000 rpms on the trailer. We haven't tried it in the water yet though. We still want to replace the thermostat just to be on the safe side.

 

[dubs283]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

sounds like you need a tutorial on starting a carb'd engine

first - pump throttle TWO times before anything

then crank engine over - if it dosen't start after TWO seconds, pump the throttle TWO more times while cranking

if still no start, STOP cranking to rest the starter, check the carb to see if in fact fuel is present in the throat

if no fuel, find out why, maybe a couple more pumps are needed or other issues could be the problem

if yes fuel, try just cranking with no throttle pump and if no luck, check for spark

 

[Evinrude Boater]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

Did the engine overheat prior to replacing the water pump? Could have warped a head or two.

 

[i'monaboat]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

Yes it overheated prior to the replacement. We got it out on the water today after replacing the thermostat which by the way was horrible. It looked like it had never been changed. The gasket was melted on there and I had to scrape it off. Today it held steady the whole time at 150*. There was a leak around the thermostat and the only thing we can think of is the o-ring we did not put in there. In the kit we got it had an o-ring and a gasket. The o-ring seemed to make it raise up and hard to tighten down so we just put the gasket in. I'm going to take it back off and put the o-ring in there as well and hopefully that will seal that up. Unless someone has another suggestion.

The only other issue we had is that there is water coming in around the drive shaft. It's not a whole lot of water, but it's enough to where we have to run the bilge periodically. Any ideas on what that could be? We've read that maybe it could be the u-joints i think. It also stalled a couple of times when putting it in reverse. I know that we need to take that carburator off of their and clean it out real good because I was thinking that might help some of the issues.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[dubs283]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

The only other issue we had is that there is water coming in around the drive shaft

u-joint bellows

 

[i'monaboat]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

Is that something a first time boat owner could change? How much do those usually run?

 

[dubs283]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

probably 70-80 bucks for OEM

with the right tools, manual, time, and patience - anything can be done

 

[Evinrude Boater]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

If you have water coming in through the driveshaft then the U-joints are wet and will be rusted and shot in no time. You better get on that right away. Did you not notice a puddle in the bellows when you had the outdrive off?

 

[nola mike]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

you should also plan on changing the lower shift cable, likely cause of your stalling esp if you have water in your bellows...

 

[i'monaboat]

Re: MCM 4.3 Alpha 1 Gen 1 won't start after impeller changed

We bought a kit that contains all 3 bellows, shift, exhaust and ujoint. It comes with the u-joints as well.