no tell tail!!!! aggh PLEASE HELP MEEEEE!!

[roydavies]

bloody typical.......been a coulple of times on ullswater with me sib and 9.9 suzuki....blilliant days no hassle.....BUT

for once i was kids free and decided a launt to menai would bein order for my maiden in the salty stuff!!

had a great time launching at menai (no hassles...fees ...etc...loads of friendly people with advice)

had a trip down the coast a few miles and returned to slip

when i noticed that no water at all from tell tale....engine was pretty hot but not shmokin or siezed thank fcuk.

had a poke around with a break cable wire but couldnt get it up!

SO I AM PARANOID THAT IVE BUGGERED THE SHINNY ENGINE

any advice for a newbie...cheers in advance roy

[jwalker]

It is common for silt to block the tell-tale nozzle or the tube connecting it to the engine or the engine fitting the tube is connected to. First step is to take that apart and clear it if necessary. Run the engine without the tube connected to see whether water issues from the engine.

[roydavies]

cheers for your advice JW

Ive got the engine on its trolley in me kitchen and have just had another poke up the tt tube to no avail...brake cable goes up about 10 cm....

so hade a look and the tt tube issues out of the solid lower half of the engine and its diif to see the upper part of the cooling system

should i take the plastic cowling off the engine and how diff is it to inspect the lower half (again paranoid android here doesnt wanna bugger the thing)

cheers

[Orwell boy]

just what i read on here but seems to be a following for strimmer nylon for poking about !

[jonp]

I use heavy fishing line about 120lb to poke up the tell-tale pipe, light gauge grass trimmer line should fit and is handy to keep onboard. 10cm doesn't sound like it's going far enough. Dropping the leg to check the impeller isn't jammed full of crud would be my next thing to look at, making sure the shafts all line up correctly when putting it back together.

[Yabadabadoo]

No short cut to seeing the cooling passageways without taking it apart. However what you are and others are getting at is to work from the outside in.

Use the correct length and width of wire/nylon to poke up the tell tail, inspect for debris in the water intake.

Do you know this out board? When was it last serviced, was the impeller replaced? How long has it been since its service?

[Fenlander]

Roy is your OB like the one in the image below?

Assuming so I would remove the clamshell lower covers so you can properly get to the pee pipe and see where it connects to the engine block.

Strimmer plastic wire is my weapon of choice and with those covers off you will be able to see where it's getting to with the amount you can insert. You really need to get to the spigot on the engine … take the pee pipe off that and see if there is a blockage at that point. Sometimes the spigot is an elbow and the most likely place for a simple blockage.

[roydavies]

poked it a few times and cleared a little grill above prop by poking the 120 lb line......put it in the big bin of water and fired it up straight away....tell tale issuing from go

HURRAH HURRAH......again just me being a paranoid android thinkin ive buggered the little beast.

LESSONS

1 keep eye on tell tale
2 keep cool
3 keep away from seaweed (mayhavebeen?)

All told a good learning experience......especially going under the telford bridge at slack HW

The motor served well and allowed me to have a bit of a play under the bridge as well as a jaunt along the menai to beaumaris.

pity weather was tosh (although 1-2 wind was ideal) saw bloody egrets!!!

it was so good to have other boaties around with good friendly advice...no probs launching

NEXT ??? thinking of venturing sw from the bridge slip down to canaerfon

THANKS chaps for advice......hope we have some calm sunny days left

[Fenlander]

>>>LESSONS 1 keep eye on tell tale

Glad it seems to be OK in the end. It's a good habit to look astern from time to time for the tell tale as a plastic bag round the intake grids can spell the end of an engine... and also particularly in busier areas to check if faster boats are bearing down on you. No idea about other folks but it's always been my habit to look astern a couple of times each minute.

[jeffstevens763@g]

Doesn't the 9.9 have the warning lights on?