Hello,
First off, this is my first post here. I'm pretty new to boating and engine maintenance.
So - the story so far. I have a '89 Blue Water 17" with a Mercruiser 3.0 130 (possibly 140) Gen 1 outdrive. I've had the boat for a couple of years, but have only had the opportunity to take it out a handful of times. Most recently, I had my kids out for the first time this year. We had been tooling around for about 15-20 mins, when the boat suddenly seemed to be losing power. I quickly saw that the temp was at max and immediately shut off the engine. The engine was hot enough that some smoke was coming off it (not out of it though). We got back to shore and once the engine had cooled down, I restarted and saw the temp climb again. The engine sounded fine, but I figured that the impeller must be gone. I didn't run it again.
I have the Seloc manual and watched a few YouTubes about replacing the water pump / impeller. Looked pretty straight forward even for a noob like me. Anyway, here's the problem. In a nutshell I'm unable to separate the upper and lower sections of the outdrive to access the pump. I'm certain I've removed all the necessary bolts (3 hex nuts around the front, 2 hex nuts underneath, the trim tab and one allen (hex) bolt under the trim tab). The rear of the drive does separate with some pressure (perhaps 1/8") but something seems to be holding the front closed. The drive is really clean, with no corrosion or much wear. I've tried tapping a chisel between the two halves and have also tried using the pressure of the front hex nuts (against the casing) to force the halves open, but no luck. I'm afraid that due to the overheating something inside has warped or melted together preventing the halves from separating. Looking at the diagrams in the manual I cannot see what though. The water pipe might be a culprit, but from what I can judge it looks like that sits about in the middle of the drive, at a position which does look like it is separating, even if only by a millimeter or two. It's definitely the front of the drive which refuses to separate. I've also tried hitting with a rubber mallet, but I'm wary of using too much force. The shift lever sits right at the front of the drive and that seems to be working just fine - engaging and disengaging correctly.
Am I missing a nut somewhere?
Any thoughts on this problem? Thanks!!
First off, this is my first post here. I'm pretty new to boating and engine maintenance.
So - the story so far. I have a '89 Blue Water 17" with a Mercruiser 3.0 130 (possibly 140) Gen 1 outdrive. I've had the boat for a couple of years, but have only had the opportunity to take it out a handful of times. Most recently, I had my kids out for the first time this year. We had been tooling around for about 15-20 mins, when the boat suddenly seemed to be losing power. I quickly saw that the temp was at max and immediately shut off the engine. The engine was hot enough that some smoke was coming off it (not out of it though). We got back to shore and once the engine had cooled down, I restarted and saw the temp climb again. The engine sounded fine, but I figured that the impeller must be gone. I didn't run it again.
I have the Seloc manual and watched a few YouTubes about replacing the water pump / impeller. Looked pretty straight forward even for a noob like me. Anyway, here's the problem. In a nutshell I'm unable to separate the upper and lower sections of the outdrive to access the pump. I'm certain I've removed all the necessary bolts (3 hex nuts around the front, 2 hex nuts underneath, the trim tab and one allen (hex) bolt under the trim tab). The rear of the drive does separate with some pressure (perhaps 1/8") but something seems to be holding the front closed. The drive is really clean, with no corrosion or much wear. I've tried tapping a chisel between the two halves and have also tried using the pressure of the front hex nuts (against the casing) to force the halves open, but no luck. I'm afraid that due to the overheating something inside has warped or melted together preventing the halves from separating. Looking at the diagrams in the manual I cannot see what though. The water pipe might be a culprit, but from what I can judge it looks like that sits about in the middle of the drive, at a position which does look like it is separating, even if only by a millimeter or two. It's definitely the front of the drive which refuses to separate. I've also tried hitting with a rubber mallet, but I'm wary of using too much force. The shift lever sits right at the front of the drive and that seems to be working just fine - engaging and disengaging correctly.
Am I missing a nut somewhere?
Any thoughts on this problem? Thanks!!
