no temp reading/no water circulating

[Bobsearay200]

Help! Started my boat up for the first time this year with ear muffs. the temperature gauge was not going up like it usually does.I felt the hose lines that are usually hot with water running through them and they were cool to touch. Opened up hoses and no water was running through. I have a hard time believing this is simply a water pump issue being that there is no water in the engine whatsoever. Could it be clogged somehow? thanks in advance!

 

[series60]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Help! Started my boat up for the first time this year with ear muffs. the temperature gauge was not going up like it usually does.I felt the hose lines that are usually hot with water running through them and they were cool to touch. Opened up hoses and no water was running through. I have a hard time believing this is simply a water pump issue being that there is no water in the engine whatsoever. Could it be clogged somehow? thanks in advance!

Might help if you tell us what you are working on! Is this a closed cooling system or fresh water system?

 

[Bondo]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Help! Started my boat up for the first time this year with ear muffs. the temperature gauge was not going up like it usually does.I felt the hose lines that are usually hot with water running through them and they were cool to touch. Opened up hoses and no water was running through. I have a hard time believing this is simply a water pump issue being that there is no water in the engine whatsoever. Could it be clogged somehow? thanks in advance!

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,... It's the raw water pump in the drive that puts water into the motor, so start there...

 

[Bobsearay200]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Boat is a 1991 searay merc alpha new gen outdrive. I just pulled the impeller and it looks fine. The rubber is still flexible and I don't see any reason for it to not work. Could this have anything to do with the fact that last year my boat only went into reverse . I had kill the engine just to get it too go back into neutral. it was at the end of the season so I put it away and figured I would get to it this spring. However now it looks like I have two issues, no water and not shifting into forward. Could this be related.oh wait I think I have three issues. It looks like there was very little water in the outdrive when I drained the oil from theoutdrive. Got to love boats

 

[Don S]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Your discriptions are a little vague. When you say it won't go into forward, does that mean it goes into reverse ok?

No water at all could mean anything from plugged up hoses from the drive to the thermostat housing, to coupler with splines stripped out, upper gears in the drive shot.

Did you pull the drive off to look at the impeller? If not, pull the upper and look at the splines.
Might pull the cap off the top of the drive and look at the gears.

It looks like there was very little water in the outdrive when I drained the oil from theoutdrive.

There shouldn't be any water at all.

Time to get busy and start checking things.

 

[dingdongs]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

remove cap from top of drive.
do the gears within have any teeth on them???
if you hit something hard last year you may have sheared the drive teeth off the top of your lower shaft that fits in the gear of the upper unit.Therefore its not rotating the shaft that rotates the impellor that selects forward and reverse .may be best to pull complete upper then investigate but your being vague about what happened the end of last season.

 

[Bobsearay200]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Ok 1991 Sea Ray 200 4.3 Merc Alpha new gen

June 2012 I repaced my impeller because of nomal maintance. Ran great all summer (25 hours). September 20th 2012 I was going very slow at night and hit rock and chewed up the prop. Not to bad tho. I drove 30 min back to the house. Parked it. Got a new prop the next day. Replaced it in the water. I ran the boat for about 2 minutes. It ran and drove fine. Parked it. 4 hours later I went to go for a cruise. Put it in reverse and it woulnt stop going backwards. I could not get it to go into forward or nuetral so I just turned the boat off. Turning the boat off allowed me to put it back in nuetral. ( no clue why). I started it back up and and the same thing happened. Would only go into reverse and couldnt stop it unless I turned the boat off. At that point I decided to pull it out of the water and being that I didnt have the cash I just winterized it. All was working fine when I winterized it. Water was running through the unit perfectly fine.

June 2013 I put the drain plugs back in the engine and started it up to get it ready for season. No problems starting. I was looking at the temp gauge and I notice it wasnt going up in temp.I then realized the water hoses were still cool. They should have had hot water running though. So I turned off the boat( hopefully I didnt do damage). Took the hoses off and drain plugs and no water came out. I wasnt getting water. So I pulled the lower unit. Noticed some steaks in the oil as if had water in it. Took a look at the impeller and it looked fine. It was less than a year old and was still flexible. No evidence that it wasnt working properly. The lower unit shaft teeth look fine.

So here are my three problems.

1. Water is not cooling engine or even getting pumped. I really dont think its the impeller. Could something be clogged. Where do I start?
2. Outdrive Oil looked streaky. (water?)
3. The boat wont go into forward gear at all.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Bobsearay200]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Got to work on the boat yesterday.
Issue 1. (water pump) This simply boggles my mind. I took the upper unit off and stuck my hose directly to the whole that receives the water. Water flowed through the boat perfecty fine which tells me its the water pump. I just dont believe it tho because the impeller looks brand new. Maybe it was my ear muffs... So I am going to put it back together and see if it works.

Issue 2. (boat wont go into gear) When I took the outdrive off I saw the set screw on the shifer cable was gone, not allowing it to go into gear but it was allowing it to go in reverse. I bought a new set screw because the old was was shot. This set screw does not have a hole in it so you can wrap a piece of wire around the little *** on the cable and the screw keeping ti from turning. I put some medium grade lock tight on the screw. That should work ok?

Issue 3. (water streaks in outdrive oil) This boggles my mind too. I put a pressure test on the outdrive at 16 psi. It has now been 14 hours and the pressure gauge reads 15 psi. Seams to me that is so minut I shouldnt worry. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Bobsearay200]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

also checked the splines and they are all good.

 

[dingdongs]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Components have to rotate to select gears.
If you have the drive off can you rotate the uj shaft by hand and keeping the fork in the forward position test gear selection
Does the prop shaft turn?????
you could roate prop and see if uj's turn too.
If not the splined shaft which goes from the lower unit to the upper units gear may have sheared off as this is normal when you strike something solid as you done last year.
If bad..............................
The 2 halves will need to be split again to investigate this and pictures are always helpful.

 

[sheboyganjohn]

Re: no temp reading/no water circulating

Just thinking out loud here. Water has to get in through the ports, up through the water pump, then up through the upper half. Split it again, remove water pump, pour some water into the pump base, make sure it comes out the bottom. Invert the upper half, pour some water into the upper water passage and make sure it comes out the top.

Check the teeth in the drive shaft that comes off the lower, check the teeth in the upper socket where the lower drive shaft goes when you put it back together.

Last, pop the cap off the top of the upper gear housing and inspect the drive and driven gear to make sure they are in one piece and engaging.