1995 Stingray 4.3L Mercruiser No Start

[Lou C]

Impellers will not suck water with a column of air in front of it. They have to be immersed in water to pull water. Even with outboards if you run in a garbage can (like we do with our little Suzuki) the water level has to be above the top of the water pump.
On land use muffs as noted or else you will burn up impellers overheat your engine & rubber exhaust hoses.

 

[TomManson]

Outdrive in a bucket sucking water like a river/lake seems more logical to me than force feeding it with the muffs. You just have to keep the bucket full with a feeder hose. Once mine burped the air out of it it ran fine at 180 degrees and I am pretty confident it will work fine on the water.

But yeah, I can see your point about if the actual pump impeller being above the water level so the water pressure at the pump would be different. But, I don't know where the impeller is in relation to the intake holes, I would think the impeller would be below those holes???

 

[alldodge]

I would think the impeller would be below those holes???

No, above

 

[TomManson]

Ok, I replaced the impeller a few years ago and do not remember where it was located, but I do remember it being a pain in the butt to reinstall that lower unit!

 

[Lou C]

Your boat is designed so that the outdrive is totally submerged when the boat is in the water. That forces water into all the passages in the outdrive. The pump must be submerged for it to prime, and even in an Alpha drive the pump is several inches above the water intakes. On a Bravo drive or Volvo the pump is way up on the engine and when you put the boat in the water the hydrostatic pressure fills the raw water intake hose all the way up to the impeller housing.

 

[TomManson]

Yeah, you guys are right and I see the light so I will switch back to the earmuffs, thanks for setting me straight on the. Tom

 

[TomManson]

The earmuffs appear to be not working as I expected. I fired her up at an idle and I see no temp increase in 5 minutes of running. There is a lot of water coming out alongside the muffs but nowhere else. I have the hose on full blast. When I had it in the big bucket it drew water and ran at 180, so??

 

[alldodge]

The impeller is toast. Running it in a bucket the impeller was able to move some water but not enough. It started to burn because seeing the 180 temp. Shutting it down before it got hotter kept from blowing the head gasket.

 

[TomManson]

Hello folks, I am back on my boat project after a long hiatus. I made a water tank from plywood and 2/4's, lined it with a tarp that was cut out around the outdrive and taped to the hull. I have the water up to almost the waterline on the hull. She runs and pumps water like she should.

 

[TomManson]

I am having electrical issues with the horn and engine blower fan. They both get power but not enough to make them operate. I'm guessing I have a bad connection suppling power to them. I have had no luck finding a schematic for the boat. I sent a message to Stingray and have not heard back from them.

 

[TomManson]

I'll see if I can post a video of it running in the water tank. I ran it so long that it heated up the tank, I calculated that there were about 140 gallons in the tank.

 

[alldodge]

Most boats don't have schematics, they use standard practice for wiring circuits. Don't know if Stingray uses additional feed from battery to helm, but they should.

 

[Bondo]

I am having electrical issues with the horn and engine blower fan. They both get power but not enough to make them operate. I'm guessing I have a bad connection suppling power to them. I have had no luck finding a schematic for the boat. I sent a message to Stingray and have not heard back from them.

Ayuh,..... Make sure they are getting a good solid Ground,....

 

[TomManson]

I ended up using my horn to probe the fuse panel and found some spots would provide enough current and others not, so I pulled the panel and used contact cleaner on it with fuses removed(reinserting fuses to help scrape) then reinstalled with all new fuses and so far everything seems to be working. There are 2 big ground and + leads on the fuse panel.

 

[alldodge]

Good deal, might look into some electrical contact spray sealer. This will help keep moisture from getting back into contacts