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4.3 TKS Sterndrive motor cooling fitting failure -

A

Alberta Boater

New member
I had a failure of a plastic motor cooling fitting yesterday. This is a plastic fitting behind the engine that looks like it is epoxied together. This allowed motor cooling water to flow into the bilge at 100% flow on about a 1 inch hose. It looks like the fitting acts like a header to allow water to go to the steering and continue on out of the boat. The hoses are clamped to two plastic pieces that appear to epoxied into the fitting/header. Is this a common problem and is there recall of warranty fix for it? Need help.
 
Go to the top of this page click on boat engine parts, enter year etc and then you can copy and paste the page and the part number then we will know what your talking about.
 
I wonder....is that fitting inserted in the middle of a Water hose?
Or is the fitting coming out of the Engine, with the Hose on the output end of the fitting?
As suggested, we could all see better if we could see what your looking at.
Photos are a great help.
 
Good advice. I couldn't find the exact drawings but I was able to figure out that the part is the power steering cooler. The pictures attached are of the broken pipe fitting and hose clamped, the broken end of the cooler and how the would fit together when unbroken. Anyone seen this before? Is it common? Any recalls etc.
 

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Whattadeal that is?
It sees like a 'quick disconnec' device.
You have a choce of replacing it with a long hose from end to end.
Or possibly something from Plumbing supply and two Stainless clamps on each side of the Repair.
 
Just to let everyone know the results. Mercury did use a plastic epoxied power steering cooler in 2010 4.3 TKS engines. They are now replacing these with a metal version under warranty that is much stronger. The cooler is a small shell and tube exchanger that sits just behind the engine. If yours is plastic have it changed before it ruins your day on the water and fills your bilge. We were lucky the volume of water did not cause any major damage and I was able to find a way back to shore.
 
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