pls help lower unit issue AGAIN!!!!

[capt-mom]

hey all hope all is having a good day!! i have a merc 115hp 6 cyl model 1150 yr 1980"s (not sure of exact year of motor) we have gotten the boat running after having many problems with gears being stuck gotten that all fixed NOW the water pump has melted and getting a new tomorrow my question is which way does the impellar suppose to turn (counter clockwise or clockwise) we believe that the impellar may have been put in wrong before and dont want to make the same mistake again (mechinic we talked to, in my belief told us to do the totally wrong thing like run the engine with just lube in it and no water and am i right in saying always run with water?)..thanks for all ur help and hope the boat will stay in the water tomorrow happy boating all

capt-mom

 

[emckelvy]

Re: pls help lower unit issue AGAIN!!!!

If you ran the motor for any length of time over just a few seconds, that's the reason why your pump melted. There's an incredible amount of friction down there when the pump has no water to lubricate it. Any grease on the impeller blades won't last that long.

So, to recap, despite the advice of that mechanic, NEVER NEVER run the motor out of the water at home, unless you have a flusher attached with adequate water pressure.

NEVER run it out of the water at the ramp, either, I've seen a fair amount of folks start the motor when the lower unit was still out of the water, then tilt the motor down while it remained running. Their water pump probably didn't last too long! Even if you've just had it immersed in water, tilting-out and firing the motor off is still bad for things. Not to mention that the powerhead has no cooling either!!

At any rate, recommend you RUN as fast and far away from that "mechanic" (and I use that term loosely) as you can!!

Gluck with the repairs, hope you get 'er out on the water and have a great time boating..................ed

P.S. a brand-new impeller, even if the blades were oriented backwards when the impeller was installed, has flexible enough rubber that the blades will 'right' themselves to the correct direction soon after the motor's been started.

Never a good idea to reverse an old impeller, once the blades have taken a 'set' they're likely to break if spun backwards.