I worked on my friend's '96 johnson 25 where I had to pull the power head out to repair it. The problem was with the crankcase cover having a hole in it. That is all fixed now and I only started and ran the engine dry 3 times for about 5 seconds each time just to make sure it was going to run good before I gave it back to my friend. My friend came and got it and ran it the other day with muffs and no water would come out of the tail hose. I keep reading in the manual about a flat washer being on the copper water tube that goes into the power head but I don't remember seeing one. Could this be a problem, or water pump or thermostat being still too cold to open up water flow? Thanks for any help.