'99 Honda 40 HP 4-stroke, no water from tell-tale

[fishingfrenzy]

Boat has been running fine (why am I still running it with no tell-tale? I have no idea) but there isn't any water coming out of the tell-tale at slow speeds, and hardly coming out at WOT. Do I need to trailer it and bring it to the mechanic or is this normal? Thanks for any help!

 

[oldgradywhite]

Re: '99 Honda 40 HP 4-stroke, no water from tell-tale

No water out the tell tail is normaly very bad. If your water pump is fired you can blow your powerhead in no time. You could have sand blocking the tell tail. try to back wash the system. but if you haven't done it do a water pump.

 

[Jake Windemere]

Re: '99 Honda 40 HP 4-stroke, no water from tell-tale

Since I run shallow silty rivers a nonfunctional tell tale usually means nothing. It usually means that I got my prop down into into the silt on the bottom and some junk has gotten into the cooling passages.

First thing to check is for sand in the fitting of the tell tale. Pull the hose off the engine block and run the engine with a set of hose muffs on the water intake. Take a thin wire, like trapping wire, and jag it back and forth in the fitting on the engine. If there is a lot of sand in there some of it will come out as the water flows. You will find that the flow might change, going from weak to strong and back depending on the size of the sand particles blocking the tell tale fitting.

Eventually you should be able to get all of the sand out.

Turn the engine off and use compressed air to blow the remaining sand down away from the tell tale and toward the other water exits.

If you find no sand then you likely have a worn out water pump impeller. In that case it is time to rebuild your water pump.