Help! Lost water flow?

[jjay74]

with the help of Roscoe and others, my motor has been identified as a 1989 Force 85 HP. Purchased the FK1204 water pump kit with housing and replaced it last week. Couldn't get the motor to pump water on the muffs, so used a barrell and it worked like a charm.

Took her to the river yesterday and it was REALLY pumping water...both out of the exhaust holes and the pee hole add on. Had some surging and hesitation in the motor, so I bought some seafoam to put in the tank.

Put the seafoam in tonight, put the foot in the drum and cranked the motor. Water was coming out of all the right places. Walked away for about 45 seconds while it was idling and when I came back, I noticed that the hose had fallen out of the drum...but the water was still above the level of the inlets on the foot, so I put the hose back in the drum. That's when I noticed there was no water coming out of the exhaust, nor the pee hole and I shut it off right away. Overheat alarm never sounded, so I thought I'd crank it back up and see what's going on. I let her run for about 30 seconds and never got water to come out. What are the chances that the seafoam had something to do with it? Is it possible that the seafoam broke something loose that is blocking the water passages now?

 

[jjay74]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

I talked with a friend of mine and he said the best thing would be to take it back to the river and run it to see what it does. He said it might pump better with the motor in the river.....that doesn't make sense to me, but after doing a search, this has been mentioned a few times. What do you guys think?

 

[further]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

I never had luck with muffs, always used a barrel. Water level should be high enough to cover where the water pump sits.

 

[jjay74]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Thanks for the reply....I never thought to submerge it past the level of the water pump. I will try that tomorrow by taking her down to the boat ramp and putting her in the water. Keeping my fingers crossed that everything is okay.

Just seems sort of weird for it to "quit" pumping water when it has been working out of the drum all this time.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Yep, when you walked away the water level went to low. May have burned up the new impeller. The pump won't suck water up. It pushes water around, so the level has to be there.

 

[jjay74]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Yeah, that's what I was guessing, but the water level wasn't below the pickups.....I was hoping for the best. Anyway, looks like it's time to pull the foot off and check her out

 

[jjay74]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Just to confirm my suspicions, took her to the boat ramp yesterday afternoon and backed her in. Started the motor and no water flow. I shut it down and sat there for a minute. Took the pee hole adapter off and put the factory plug back in the thermostat housing. Started up again and got a LITTLE water spray out of the exhaust holes in the back. Was hoping that was a good sign, but a LITTLE spray is all I got. Turned back into NO water and nothing but smoke coming out.

Pulling the foot this afternoon to check the impeller. Hopefully the plastic water pump housing is still intact. That's the expensive part.

 

[jjay74]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Yep, when you walked away the water level went to low. May have burned up the new impeller. The pump won't suck water up. It pushes water around, so the level has to be there.

This is EXACTLY what happened. Pulled the foot yesterday, pulled the water pump housing and found what was left of the impeller. Looked like a chewed up corn cob. Anyway, the housing is okay and the insert isn't scarred. I ran the water full blast up through the water tube and don't seem to have any blockage. Full water flow coming out of the exhaust ports and out of the top of the thermostat housing. Going to get a new impeller today and put her back together. $13 dollar mistake instead of $100+ dollars.

Lesson learned.....will make sure to take her to the river and run it instead of running in a drum. Cannot get the water level up high enough in the drum to submerse the foot past the level of the water pump.

 

[Banditz]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Glad you fixed your boat.

Only thing is, since all the water is picked up from the pickups....why in the world would the water need to be up over them? that makes no sense to me. Now...that being said, I do belive in your case with the prop turning maybe, the water would kinda slosh around and leve the pump out of water...now that I would understand. Is that kinda what happened?

 

[jjay74]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

No, never had the motor in gear......high idle only trying to burn the seafoam through the carbs and hopefully clear it up. I was thinking the same thing about the pickups. I posted another question just a minute ago, post title "Water pump round 2". I want to check the inlets for blockage, but not exactly sure how in the heck the water is supposed to travel through the foot. Can something in the foot "all of a sudden" block a water inlet passage? The drum was clean and full of clean water. Everything was working to start with, but after I found the hose on the ground, no more water flow. But the water never got below the level of the water inlets, or at least what I think is the water inlets.



Now, I did run the motor after backing it into the river to see if I could get it to pump, but that was the next day when I put it in gear and thought maybe I could get it going, but nothing worked. Pulled the foot and the impeller was torn to pieces.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Glad you fixed your boat.

Only thing is, since all the water is picked up from the pickups....why in the world would the water need to be up over them? that makes no sense to me. Now...that being said, I do belive in your case with the prop turning maybe, the water would kinda slosh around and leve the pump out of water...now that I would understand. Is that kinda what happened?

The pump sits higher than the inlets. It won't suck the water up! It only pushes availiable water. No water, no cooling= burnt impeller.

 

[Banditz]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

The pump sits higher than the inlets. It won't suck the water up! It only pushes availiable water. No water, no cooling= burnt impeller.

Ok I got ya...makes perfect sense now...I thought the thing would pump or pull water up from the inlets. Now, I understand. Thank you!

 

[Smokepole27]

Re: Help! Lost water flow?

Ok I got ya...makes perfect sense now...I thought the thing would pump or pull water up from the inlets. Now, I understand. Thank you!

It will not suck water up, the impeller is designed to push water not pump it like normal water pumps on your car etc. the impeller is designed to push water hence the ears will force water into the pump housing and supply water to be distributed. Trust me I know from experience I thought I had enough water in a barrel one day and indead I did burn the impeller up and melted the metal impeller housing to the hardend plastic housing around it, when dissasembled the impeller was in peaces and like i said it wasnt a pretty picture when I waited a week for the new impeller that I just installed to get dismembered!