After about 10 minutes at a decent speed the over heat buzzer went off. My first thought was that I hadn't fixed the wiring like I thought previously. However when I turned around to look at the outboard I noticed the telltale was spitting a bit. So I cut the engine to have a look. I thought maybe I'd sucked up a plastic bag or something and there wasn't enough water getting through. I pulled the engine up and there was nothing visible on the intake. I dropped the engine back down, pulled the cowl off and started it again. The buzzer was still going - and checking the wiring it was definitely one of the temp senders this time (not the low oil) that was grounding to sound the alarm.
It was at this point that the telltale got worse, not only spitting but getting to the point were it was just putting out steam - not good.
So I shut the engine off and got a tow back in from the father in law on the jet ski.
After talking about it a bit and googling around I decided to take a look at the thermostats and water pump. I set out early one Saturday morning to get the thermostat housing off to have a look and see what was going on:
This is the housing, at the bottom of the back of the outboard. The housing has two chambers (one for each cylinder head), each with a thermostat and a pressure release valve. After removing the two hoses, there are just 3 bolts that need to come out. The first two came out easily enough, but the third would not move. It didn't help with where the bolt was - in that I was limited in what tools (and in which position) I could get them onto the bolt. So after stripping the bolt, filing it down to a smaller size, using some heat and some WD40 it still wouldn't budge.
I ended up having to hacksaw the corner of the housing to get it off. Not ideal - but I couldn't see any other way:
So thanks to the bolt, the housing was cactus. That middle spacer is plastic and snapped pretty quickly. The thermostats were both completely gone, both being stuck just slightly open. The hoses were also stuffed. Time to order some parts and wait by the mailbox. In the mean time I cleaned up surface on the outboard ready for new bits with a wire wheel on my Dremel:
Fast forward a week or so and the parts arrived:
Pretty straight forward assembly. Comparison shot:
Putting it back on wasn't too bad, just a little tricky with the springs on the release valves. Once back on the outboard, just a matter of putting the new hoses on, and that was it:
With that sorted, I currently have the gear case off to rebuild the water pump. I'm just waiting for the parts to arrive. Once they do and the pump is rebuilt I'll post that up. Hopefully then Dusty is back on the water!
