Fun at the cottage

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OVERKILL

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Went to take the boys for their maiden fishing voyage this year and the Honda, which has always been the pinnacle of reliability, kept randomly stalling at trolling speed. No warning noises of any kind and it appeared to be cooling based on the presence of the "pee stream", though it did strike me as a bit weaker than last year.

Finally, at the marina, I fired it up one day and there was no pee stream. Gave it a bit of gas and it reappeared. I figured it must be overheating at low speed.

Tore into the lower unit to swap out the impeller (which actually comes as a kit from Honda, including new housing, plate, bolts, O-ring, key and impeller) and found this:

impeller01.jpg

impeller02.jpg


Was definitely on the right track!

Put it back together and it was obvious that the impeller had been on its way out for a while as the pee stream was far stronger than it had ever been since we acquired the boat.

I also learned, through perusal of the Honda owners manual, that if you have a remote drive version of the same engine, you get a nice little overheat warning light, but the tiller-controlled version has no such feature, just the thermal cut-off, which we were experiencing.
 
When it comes to an outboard when I ran them I changed it every other season regardless of how many hours I run mine. OVERKILL maybe, but better than overheating the engine.
 
Good job diagnosing & repairing!
thumbsup2.gif


Was it easy to find/get another or did you have a spare?
 
Originally Posted By: Smoky14
Makes me wonder where all the little pieces went and what they clogged up.
Smoky


^^this^^
 
I would think the infallible Honda engineers would have used some sort of metal reenforcement, it may have been their transmission and drive line gang though.
lol.gif

That looks like a poorly designed PITA. Nice diagnostic work!
 
Flexible impeller sea pumps are normal in marine applications. Change them regularly. Now you know how many seasons one will go.
 
You dangle a nice fishing story in order get us hooked....then only share a picture of a lousy rubber pump impeller??

Trolling.gif
What about the fish?? The boys?? The one that got away.
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Turk
Good job diagnosing & repairing!
thumbsup2.gif


Was it easy to find/get another or did you have a spare?



The marina, which is also the local Honda outboard dealer, had it in stock. So I just grabbed it on my way into town to get groceries and then installed it when I got back to the cottage.
 
Originally Posted By: Smoky14
Makes me wonder where all the little pieces went and what they clogged up.
Smoky


They were basically all collected down below the impeller, with one chunk down right by the pick-up. None seemed to be downstream of the impeller.
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Flexible impeller sea pumps are normal in marine applications. Change them regularly. Now you know how many seasons one will go.


Yup, I had to do the one on my old Johnson long-shaft, but when it failed it didn't pump at all, whilst this one was a bit misleading at first since it was still pumping water.

Considering the impeller was like 12 years old, I'm figuring every 5 years or so is probably more than adequate. It is a cold fresh water lake, so pretty easy on them it would seem.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
You dangle a nice fishing story in order get us hooked....then only share a picture of a lousy rubber pump impeller??

Trolling.gif
What about the fish?? The boys?? The one that got away.
grin.gif





I got this guy, pretty decent first catch:

Walleye01.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: Tuffy1760
great report... nice waldo... how much did the "kit" cost??


Kit was $109.00. And yeah, that's the biggest Walleye I've caught up there, which, being my first catch of the year, was sort of amusing. I usually catch smallmouth and pike.
 
That impellor has been in there for a while, you can see the grooves on the plate. You won't BELIEVE this....but I'm telling you the truth....my 96 Marada 3.0LX had the original impellor in it since it was built. I changed it out earlier this year and only one blade was bent....and it was bent backwards...weird.
 
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
that's the biggest Walleye I've caught up there,


That's not a Walleye .. that's a Pickerel.
Trolling.gif




Same darn thing! LOL!
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
I would think the infallible Honda engineers would have used some sort of metal reenforcement, it may have been their transmission and drive line gang though.
lol.gif

That looks like a poorly designed PITA. Nice diagnostic work!


Trav, you're not a boat guy are you? All, or almost all, raw water impellers (pumps) are exactly like that and have been forever. Nothing wrong with it, it just takes maintenance every few years (some say every year) or what you see in the pictures happens. Never, never, never start an outboard or sterndrive boat engine without the lower unit having a water supply as that is what cools the impeller and prevents the vanes from chunking off, like in the pictures.
 
Clogged water inlet ports or running the motor out of water will take out an impeller pretty quickly. Just a few minutes of running dry is enough to seriously damage one, they are also a normal maintenance item but if you don't see the water coming out of the motor within a few seconds of starting you should always look at the intake ports and make sure they arent plugged up with weeds or mud.
 
Even in Fresh Water,Three (3) Years is "Pushing the Limits" of recommended R+R on water pump
impellers.
Make sure you "Grease" the new impeller and contact points on the SS Plates and Cup with Synthetic Marine Lube to protect the impeller during it's first "Startup" which will Be DRY !
I've seen Brand new impellers "Burn Up" due to Starting Dry!!!
 
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