April 11, 2011
It’s 5 days to launch – I have two motors, but as of yesterday neither was working. I was getting a bit stressed-out as I need to retrieve my tender and move the boat to it’s mooring. It’s not a long trip from launch to mooring, about 10 minute motor, but I don’t want to paddle, and getting towed seems somehow – sad.
The ancient (1982) Johnson 9.9hp was running but no cooling water was flowing. The previous owner said it was running fine two years ago…. but I was afraid potential purchasers might have run the engine dry and damaged the impeller.
A teardown revealed a good looking impeller, my guess is the copper feed tube wasn’t seated properly in the seal on top of the pump. The rubber bush looks damaged from the tube sitting on the lip (photo with the screwdriver), but the tube should be inserted into it. The damage doesn’t look like it will affect the sealing when assembled properly.
I gave a blast of compressed air through the tube and it blew out the pee hole indicating no blockage in the waterjacket.
I put it back together, filled the garbage can with water and viola! it started immediately, settled down to a nice idle with a good stream of water out the side.
Phew. Who knew a peeing motor could be so relieving.
I am greatly indebted to LeeRoy Wisner’s awesome Johnson website for its factual and anecdotal information on keeping old Johnson outboards alive.
That afternoon, I went down and put the rudder on, and finished the bottom paint under the support pads and on the rudder.