Stringer does disengaging ballgear keep water pump safe

"I'm getting to know, and

"I'm getting to know, and working on putting back on its feet, a 1966 OMC Stringer.

I recently replaced the main & rod bearings, and, to get the oil distributed, I want to turn the engine over with the starter for a bit, without spark, without starting.

I get it that running the vertical-drive water-pump 'dry', even for a few seconds, can burn out the pump. It crossed my mind, however, that when the drive unit is raised, the ball-gear disengages, and therefore, doesn't it figure that the pump would be disabled and safe from burn-out?

Is this a simple way of protecting that lower-unit pump or am I missing out on some aspect of it?

I'd prefer not to get the hose out and have to drain/winterize the cooling system again.

What don't I understand with this?

Thanks for any input!"

"Although I have not tried put

"Although I have not tried putting my 74 Stringer Outdrive all the way up and turn over the Engine, I have read that the Ball Gear does not entirely disengage. Since it does not, it will cause pre-mature wear on the Ball Gear and make an unerving noise."

"That is true about the not -q

"That is true about the not -quite-disengaging- thing.The Ball gear is always floating on its counterpart on my 67 Stringer as well.You could take out the distributor and turn the oil pump with a heavy Drill. Ive seen this done on engines that are being prepped to go in a car.
BTW...I've been told to NEVER RUN this kind of drive when NOT SUBMERGED in water (the drive , that is)I'm supposed to get a barrel to run the unit in. The hose connection is ONLY for administering Antifreeze to the engine, on a gravity basis. The guy I talked to said to open the cocks on the engine, thats all you need do.Put drive DOWN to winter. I hope I didnt burn out my impeller, as I've run the engine several times without having the drive in the water, on the hose. All the while thinking I was doing the right thing. OH the things we learn AFTER the fact...
How bout some pics of that Boat?? I got mine posted on a Chris-Craft owners site.If you wanna see her, let me know.

Scott"

"Thanks guys, I guess I didn&#

"Thanks guys, I guess I didn't look closely enough when I had it lifted, in the summer.

Right now the battery's recharging or I would have had it up in the air, checking it out yesterday.

Thanks again."

"Let me explode a myth:

&

"Let me explode a myth:

"Running a rubber water pump impeller dry for a few seconds will wreck it."

Not necesarily so. As a kid I regularly fired up my outboard at the house--to see if it would run okay--before lugging it across the marsh to my boat (several hundred feet). I didn't know any better, you see, but the thing never failed me.

Jeff"

"Although I don,t entirely dis

"Although I don,t entirely disagree with you, but... there is a major difference between the aluminum housed pumps used on the outboards when you were a kid, and the plastic housed, stainless steel sleeved, housings used on today's motors.

The problem now is, you don't have to worry as much about smoking the impellor, rather melting the housing. The stainless sleeve generates heat much faster than the old aluminum housing and the only place for this heat to go is into the plastic housing.

Most likely you are not going to do any damage with a quick test, but I have started motors accidently, while troubleshooting them, and not been able to shut them off fast enough to save the housing. Usually 15 seconds or longer is too long.

Kohler uses a pressure activated safety switch to shut down their new electronic controlled genests in case of a cooling pump failure. The controller incorporates a 5 sec. delay in shutdown to avoid shutdowns everytime the pump gets a little air. You would think that you would never be able to burn up a pump from running it dry with this system in place, yet at least once a month I am at the Silverton plant replacing a burned up pump because the travel lift operator forgot to shut down the genset prior to pulling the boat. Keep in mind, this unit is running at 3600 RPMs when the water supply is taken from it, but still, it's only 5 seconds.

Rick"

"I've seen both sides of t

"I've seen both sides of this. I also wrongly thought that the lower unit was "dissconnected" when it was in the full up position. It is not! Later though when doing a complete rebuild of my upper gearcase, that even though I had run it enough to wreck the ball gears completely, upon disassembly, I found that the water pump was fine. No scoring on either the impeller or the housing. (I replaced it out of spite anyway) I'd have to say that I ran it for at least ten minutes on and off during a couple of weeks while working on it. Sometimes for as much as five minutes at a time.
HHhhhmmmm........"

"I am new to the OMC world, an

"I am new to the OMC world, and am learning as I go as a lot of folks here are. I was just told however by the mechanic that did a repower for me on a stringer 800 that when he ran the engine from the hose connection that water exited through all possible places on the outdrive, including the exhaust and pickup. Does that not mean that water is actually working its way back through the water pump, therefore not doing any damage?"

"That's correct. Usually,

"That's correct. Usually, when using a hose, there is enough pressure to feed the entire engine and outdrive. I use a "tee" in the intake hose up from the intermediate housing and get water coming out of the intake, the exaust, and both "tattletales" on the pivot caps. Remeber though, the water is only cooling the engine. The outdrive itself is cooled by water flowing over it when you are in the water. Running a lower unit out of the water in gear can heat things up fairly quick."

"..."there is a major diff

"..."there is a major difference between the aluminum housed pumps used on the outboards when you were a kid, and the plastic housed, stainless steel sleeved, housings used on today's motors.
"

I totally agree with that! Obviously, I was darn lucky way back then (and slim, too).

Jeff"

"Yeah, and my hair was brown."

"Yeah, and my hair was brown."

"Yeah, and I Had hair!"

"Yeah, and I Had hair!"