[Jay23]

1989 Evinrude 200

I took my boat out yesterday to try the motor on the water for the first time.

The motor cranked up and idled just fine fine as i was backing off the trailer, but within about 3 minutes the trouble alarm started going off steadily. My temp gauge read 135-140, the tell tale was pissing water, and while the motor was running I shot the top of the heads with a infrared temp gun and they read 135-140 as well. I know its not the VRO because I have the pump and plug disconnected.

After about 45 mins of panicking that yet again another motor was overheating its way into self destruction, I noticed the primer bulb was flat. I tried pumping it a little and I noticed every time I slighty squeezed it, the alarm would go off.

Im guessing that the fuel restriction alarm was going off. Im going to change the water separator and in line filter and see if that helps, the bulb is less than a year old. Is there anything else I should be looking at? Am I right about the alarm being fuel related?

[noelm]

flat primer is pretty simple, it is a blockage/restriction between the primer and the tank, common cause, vent blocked, filter blocked, fuel hose kinked or soft, or picked inside tank blocked, easy method to test vent, is just unscrew the filler cap, it has NOTHING to do with the VRO!!!

[noelm]

just re read your post, what do you mean about the VRO "pump and plug disconnected"?

[Jay23]

I unscrewed the fill cap and that didnt seem to help, I may not have left it long enough though. After about 5 minutes, I didnt notice a change and the alarm didnt go off so I screwed it back on.

[Jay23]

Originally Posted by noelm

just re read your post, what do you mean about the VRO "pump and plug disconnected"?

I unplugged the 3 wire plug the runs off the oil pump and put a stop in the hose where the hose from the oil tank would connect.

[Jay23]

I removed all the fuel filters to replace them today and thought maybe I have too many. Could this be causing the primer bulb to go flat, or is the motor working to hard to pull fuel through 3 filters?

Heres my setup:

Gas tank----->Racor Filter-----> Inline Glass Filter----->Primer Bulb---->Inline Filter under motor cover (OEM)---->Motor

Im going to change everything from the Racor foward to see if that makes a difference but from what Ive read, the anti siphon valve seems to be the most common culprit.

[noelm]

the primer valve can be a problem, but not all that common, can you run a line direct from the tank to the primer? or just buy a new primer and replace it, fairly cheap and easy to do.