Bad Impeller??

[chuck527]

Gentlemen,

I was out on the water yesterday and I have an '09 mercury 50hp. It has never really had a "jet" stream of water exiting the engine port but yesterday it slowed to almost a trickle at an idle and a weak stream at best running back in. I took it home and flushed it with the hose and muffs. Now in the past I know when i hooked the hose up on other motors it shot out pretty good before i even started the motor. As I ran the motor the water volume picked up a little and continued to pick up as I increased the RPM's. Any thoughts? The last thing I want to do is damage this motor. I'm a bit paranoid after seizing a motor about fifteen years ago. Thanks.

[Trap Jaw]

One thing I always do before pulling the lower unit to replace the impeller is to use a blow gun and give it a shot of compressed air in the discharge tube. Sometime things get stuck in there, bugs block it up, I've also seen where there is nothing in there but giving it a shot cleared something. Just something I was told long ago, after I spent a couple hours removing and reinstalling a lower unit just to find out the impeller was like brand new. Did the trick then and has saved me numerous times from un-needed repairs.

[rolmops]

There probably is nothing to worry about. Impellers in fresh water tend to last for a long time and there should be nothing wrong with a 2009 one.I presume that you are talking about the peehole which shows you that cooling water is running up to the engine.

Just take a piece of very flexible wire and shove it into the hole with the hose hooked up.jerk it back and forth a few times.Now start the engine and see if there is any improvement.

If there is a cooling problem,there are 2 ways to detect it.First the overheat alarm on your remote control will go off,but if you do not trust that ,then take off the cowling and while running the engine in the water put your hand on the engine.If it burns your hand,there is a problem,but if it is possible to hold your hand on there for a while,say 30 seconds,then your system is in good shape

[chuck527]

Thanks for the advice guys. I pulled out the compressor this morning and shot a couple blasts of air into the peehole and could hear the air exit the lower unit. Hooked the hose back up and she spit water like she never had before!