Re: water pump impeller on a 1966 mercury 950ss
So what is your question? Do you have a problem or just an anxiety? If you have an anxiety, take a tranquilizer. Be careful of the boo birds herein and there are many and for some rightly so, but you have to examine their operating envelope and you may easily see why they are having impeller problems.
I am running a '02 90 hp that I have never changed the impeller and it works stellar. At idle, my pee stream shoots 2" into the water. Some guys on here say that they have run their rigs 17 years with the same one. If you are in silty/salty water and worried about it getting eaten up then okaye....maybe, but remember modern OB's have temp warning horns and also pressure bypasses so if you get caught out, all you have to do is get on plane, get some pressurized water forced into your LU and come on home....barring the clogged water passage syndrome and some have had that problem and I never have. Been boating since late '50's and never removed an impeller with blades or pieces missing.....but some have.....analyze their operating envelope and maintenance/usage habits.
Thing people never address on impellers, is that current engines have the water pickup ahead of the prop; lots just behind the leading edge of the LU. Water there is as clear as it's going to get, not like it used to be where the water PU was on the leading edge of the exhaust deflector and all the .......stuff.......the prop dug up went into your water pump.
Only other thing is that I don't fish as much as I used to do, so every week or so, I will hit my starter just a tad to spin the impeller, changing it's position, reducing the possibility of it developing a "set" where the blades stay folded back from being compressed in the small part of the eccentric water passage of the pump.
Can I be of further assistance sir?
Mark
