Re: please help me 1976 9.9 problems
That unit does not have a tell-tale hole for water indication. The pumps operation is observed by a spray that comes out the exhaust hole, in the back, just under the cowl. Note, that nothing observable really comes out until the T-stat opens up. Usually happens about 15 seconds after start up. As the T-stat opens and closes the drizzle of water will increase and decrease. If this is happening, your water pump is working fine.
As the other poster has said, if you can put your hand on the powerhead while in use or just after shut down, then it is not overheating.
Your problem may also be the coils, however I am hesitant to think that both coils would fail in the same way at the same time. Usually what happens with a faulty coil is one cylinder drops out first, indicated by just a loss of power. Since these motors can run quite well on one cylinder, they rarely stop completely when this happens. However, coils do have a tendancy of cutting out when they warm up (when they are defective), hence my reason for pointing them out. If both cylinders are dying at the same time, I might rule out the points as well. That would lead me to a fuel issue (carburetor, air leak, gas tank ventilation) or compression (head gasket perhaps).
