1989 Evinrude Alarm Issue

Hi Everyone.

I bought a 1989 16ft Tracker Deep V with the 1989 Evinrude 40hp motor (Model # TE40ELCEC) last summer. I ran into an alarm issue which was a steady alarm until I shut the boat off. From reading several threads, it seems this could be due to overheating or a wire short of some sort or a gas flow issue. However, I couldn't find a thread where someone had the the alarm signaling at consistent times as I did. At idle, the alarm would go off about every 4 minutes. At 1/4 throttle, it would go off every 2-3 minutes. At 3/4 throttle, the alarm would go off at 45-50 seconds. Each time was pretty consistent. I would drive until the alarm signaled and then came to a stop and shutdown the motor. I immediately started the motor and the alarm was off. It would stay off until the above situations occurred. If it was an overheat issue, wouldn't the alarm signal as soon as I restarted the engine? I didn't give it a chance to cool down. The engine was hot but you could keep your hand on it for a few seconds. It was peeing what I assumed to be a normal rate. I can't say if the water coming out was hot. Anyone experience this or have thoughts as to what's going on? I have a service manual but no experience in testing the alarms or testing for wiring issues. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks- Jeff

Seeing as how the overheat alarm (constant and steady) sequence increases with the rpm, if it were me, I would take that as a water pump on the verge of failure, a thermostat partially clogged, something of that nature.

At any rate, I'd strongly suggest you drop the lower unit to inspect the pump components and also remove, check the thermostat etc.

To answer your question, yes, if the engine did actually overheat to a point where the warning horn was activated, and you simply turned the engine off and immediately started it back up, the horn should still be sounding off. Why it didn't is a mystery that may be solved when you do the above checking/testing.

joereeves said:

Seeing as how the overheat alarm (constant and steady) sequence increases with the rpm, if it were me, I would take that as a water pump on the verge of failure, a thermostat partially clogged, something of that nature.

At any rate, I'd strongly suggest you drop the lower unit to inspect the pump components and also remove, check the thermostat etc.

To answer your question, yes, if the engine did actually overheat to a point where the warning horn was activated, and you simply turned the engine off and immediately started it back up, the horn should still be sounding off. Why it didn't is a mystery that may be solved when you do the above checking/testing.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback Joe!