# Outboard not spitting much water



## JasonL

I recently had some overheating issues with my 97 Sears Gamefisher Outboard 15hp. I changed out the impellar which was in bad shape and put everything back together. The motor is psitting out a little water now, but no where near the amount it sprayed before the issues occured. I went through everything I can think of and was able to reverse flush clean water through the pee hole and back out the bottom of the outboard with sucess, but when I run it there is still not much water coming out. 

The only thing I can think of to do is replace the thermostat, which looks to be in bad shape as well. My question is if a bad thermostat would cause my problem of little water coming out of the piss hole?

I'm a fairly new boater and am trying to learn repair work on my own motor, so any help would be appreciated.


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## Sailing_Faith

When you removed the old impeller, were any of the paddles missing?

If so, it may well be that one of them (or a part) is closing off one of the passages... might have to drop the lower again and try to back flush it out...
...that is if you have not already tried cleaning out the weep hole... they can get partially closed and make the stream weak.

Good luck.


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## JasonL

Interesting that you say that because the impellar was shredded and missing some paddles. What I did was remove the lower part of the outboard and I took off the thermostat and cover and put a hose with running water up to that hole and the water came out of the bottom, so I assumed that there were no blockages at least from just above the water pump and up to the pee hole.

Some people on forums recommended running some weed eater wire down through the water flow shaft to see if there are any blockages, but I can't get the wire threaded too far through, so I am unable to check that way, but I wouldn't think that water would flow through that upper part of the engine if there were shreds of the impellar stuck up there.

Would a stuck or bad thermostat cause the limited or lack of water to come out of the pee hole?

Might a part of the impellar be stuck below the water pump and cause this problem? I apologize for all my questions. I am just trying to graps the possible issues, so I can troubleshoot it.


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## JasonL

I think I may have found the problem with my issue. I took the impellar and housing back off and found a small pin hole that looks to have been bored all the way through the impellar housing. Here are the pics of the hole in the unit. Can anyone with knowledge confirm if this would cause my motor to barely or not spit out water at all? Thanks.


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## oxbeast1210

I had a similar problem once ny issue was that I did not properly seat the line that carries the water with the rest of the motor
Where are you located?


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## oxbeast1210

Also are you hooking it to the hose or using a barrel?


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## JasonL

I'm located in Penacola, FL. I live on Creighton, but my motor is at a friends house near Airport and Rawson Lane.


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## JasonL

I always use a barrel to flush it and run it. I heard from a number of people that they did not recommend using the hose attachement to flush the motor.


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## X-Shark

> I changed out the impellar which was in bad shape


Looking at the pix's of all the pitting and wear marks in your pix's.

This is why I don't change just the impeller, but instead replace the WHOLE kit.

I don't know about your particular little motor, but most kits have a replacement liner. Yours may not?

I knew a guy that did what you have done once. He still had overheating problems on a 35Hp Rude. The fix was replacing the housing as it was warped.


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## JasonL

I was able to eliminate my issue by replacing the entire water pump, but after I put the lower unit back on I now have no reverse. My revers is now my neutral and my neutral is what puts me in forward. What could I have done while having the bottom off to cause this?


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## lastcast

Sounds like you might have bumped the shifting rod, moving it out of or into gear depending on where it was when you started. Or, didn't get the linkage clamp on in the right place. Sounds like you might have to drop the lower unit again.


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## SpeckWrecker

definately need a new water pump kit or at least a housing that one is looking rough we had a force come into the shop a couple weeks ago and his housing looked similar to yours and he did the same thing as you did he just ordered an impeller which i think if your gonna replace the impeller you might as well order a kit


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