2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

[mpiersak]

Hello-

I noticed my water not spraying out of the peehole on my Merc. I tried to hook up a hose directly to the peehole on the motor to push out any blockage, to no avail. I did notice that water did NOT even come out of the lower unit intake when I had this hooked up. And I also tried to hook up the earmuffs to see if I could force water through. In both instances, water slowly drips out of either the intake (when hose is connected to peehole), and out the peehole (when Earmuffs are connected to lower unit.

So my question is, if it was an issue with the impeller, would water come out of the lower unit intake? I am trying to determine if I have a blockage or need to replace the impeller blade.

Also, does anyone have any tricks/tips to clear out a blockage from the hoses?

Thanks, Mark.

 

[Dave1027]

Re: 2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

Maybe the tell tail nozzle is clogged. Happens to mine all the time. It's easy to fix. Remove the nozzle and blow compressed air backwards through it or use a small wire to clear the passage.

 

[latin monkey]

Re: 2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

when was the last time the impeller was replaced?

 

[mpiersak]

Re: 2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

Thanks for the replies. I did stick a wire into the nozzle and it doesn't appear to have anything blocking at that point.

This is the original impeller. And I will be taking off the lower unit this week once I have a few hrs to commit to it, but what leads me to believe it *may* not be the impeller is that when I hook a hose to the p-hole, and run the motor, water doesn't come out of the intake whatsoever. If the passage was clear, shouldn't water come puring out the bottom intake?

And when I hook the muffs to it, it has a very weak stream coming out of the p-hole. And I notice a lot of WARM water coming out of the propeller. So my guess is that water is getting to the block?

This is just speculation at this point...being that this is the first time I have had to work on the cooling system on this motor. Thanks for any advice!

 

[latin monkey]

Re: 2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

if that impeller has never been changed then now is the time to change it. if its starting to break apart then the pieces will be goin up in the motor. let us know how the old one looks, if its all together or broken up, and if you are still having problems after you install the new one

 

[latin monkey]

Re: 2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

when you have the lower unit off, run water from the hose up through the water tube and see if any water comes out of the telltale(pisser)

 

[mpiersak]

Re: 2001 Mercury 115 EFI Water Pump Clogged/Broken?

Well, I fixed the issue...indeed, it was still clogged with Sand and Grit.

I had taken the lower unit apart to replace the Impeller, and to my surprise, the impeller was in decent shape. But the top gasket was almost completely deteriorated, so I replaced the gaskets, as well as the Impeller.

Still not confident that it was the impeller, I had the lower unit off, hooked up the hose to the p-hole, and started it up with water running. No water coming out at all...

I then hooked up the lower unit, hooked the muffs up, started and still no water.

I then took off the thermostat, and tied some fishing line to it so that I could dunk it in some hot water (to see if the thermostat was opening up). It opened up at the right temps, to the right tolerance.

So, I started to unhook water hoses to see if I could isolate the clog. Using a long line of weed whipper line (btw, fits perfectly through the connections and hoses). Starting by deductive reasoning, and working my way to isolation. I found the clog was in a metal unit on the port side of the motor. Not sure what this is called, but it had both connections to the Water and Fuel lines. So...now time to clear out the clog.

I took a fishing hook, and started scraping the clog at the bottom connection going into the water line which looked like the last hose connection before exiting the P-hole. I cleared out enough grit and sand so that I could fish my weed whipper line through completely. Then, with the hoses still disconnected, I ran some water through that piece to clear it out.

Hooked everything back up, connected the garden hose to the p-hole, started the motor, and viola, water now pouring through.

Hooked muffs up, started motor, and its spraying just fine.