Impeller / water problem - 115 tracker marine (merc)

[grim reeler]

Yesterday, a friend of mine called with a problem on his motor. He had gone fishing and noticed that when he was loading the boat up, the motor wasn't peeing.

We dropped his lower unit and pulled the impeller. It looked fine, and since we were not able to locate a new impeller locally, we put it back in. Still no water flow through the pee hole. The exhaust was only spitting water. We had figured it was probably full of mud considering the recent mud bar at the landing incident, but the foot looked plenty clean aside from small amounts of sand. The hose feeding the pee hole is completely clear.

Now we are faced with a dilema - get a new impeller, replace the old and re-evaluate, or get a water pump kit (with a new impeller) and replace it all. Is it common for water pumps to go bad?

I guess what I really need is some help troubleshooting this....

Any ideas/advice?

[tin can]

Is the heat alarm sounding? If so, I would suggest the water pump kit, and new thermostats. If not, try blowing compresdsed air in the weep hole. It doesn't take much to stop it up, and it may not be in the hose itself. It might be in the fitting in the block.

[grim reeler]

No alarms sounding, which is what led me to believe it was a simple clogged pee hole. The day he noticed it had quit working, he told me he hadnt run far, mostly trolling almost from the landing. We never let it run long while hooked to the rabbit ears - maybe 4 or 5 minutes at the most. But you can move air freely through the pee hole, and the lack of water moving thru the exhaust concerned me as well.

I wasn't aware outboards had thermostats. Every one I have ever owned peed right when they were cranked. I will look into that. I assume you can test them in boiling water like you can for an car?

[Will_Fish_4_Food]

Thread some king rig light wire through the outboard pee hole. Worked for me with similar symptoms after attempting an upstream Waklulla River trip.