Sunday, January 26, 2014

Replacing an impeller on a 15hp Mercury

I had always heard that outboard impellers are inside the lower unit, but had never confirmed that and never knew how it worked.  And while there is just about everything else posted up on Youtube, Justin had a little more difficulty trying to get a good guide on exactly how to do it.  He ended up combining a few different sources and started disassembling the unit....



I, on the other hand, was of no help today as I've seemed to have contracted some sort of upper respiratory/head-cold kind of crud.  So while Justin worked away on the Mercury, Tami put down another layer of compounding on the outer starboard hull.  I'd poke my head out every now and then in hopes of trying to contribute, but it wouldn't last very long before I was back in the boat, resting, and feeling sorry for myself.  

But I was able to see enough of the repair to know how it works - and actually helped just a little when he was putting it back together.  The impeller sits in the housing horizontally over the down shaft inside it's own housing.  As you can see, the original impeller was in rough shape although not as bad as we were expecting.  



After the repair, however, the engine had a nice and strong stream of seawater coming from the discharge tube, but would loose some of its strength soon thereafter.  Justin removed the housing at the motor to make sure the lines were clog-free, and who would have know it, but little outboard motors have thermostats.  It was cleaned up a bit and seemed to be working well enough, but we ordered another one just in case.


Our "hanging from the davits, in a trashcan" setup

Also, the fuel leaks that were caused by the carburetor removal were also repaired.  The leak at the mating surface was rectified by turning over the gasket and cutting out a tab so that the carburetor could make a new "impression" on the flip side of the gasket.  The leak at the bowl was remedied by simply making a new gasket out of some material we just happened to pack in the trailer.  Hopefully I feel better tomorrow so I can actually contribute and be productive.  

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