Water indicator……kind of a weird one. Input?

Picked up a 98 BF75 with low hours. Knowing the owner reported low flow on water indicator after 10 mins I was in for a bit of a gamble but the price was right. The engine was used to get back and forth from sail boat and was saltwater. It lacked care and I basically cleaned and replaced a lot of items around the water jacket including both bypass valves, tstat, etc. also put new OEM water pump, upper and lower housing, all new seals for gear shaft, shift shaft and prop. I am going to do a warm water long term strong concentration neutra salt cleaning. Wanted to make sure it ran fine first which it did. I was using ears and getting a tight seal was not doable. Anyways when I got it started the water flow was not great. So I squeezed the tube shut tight for a couple of seconds and then got great flow. If I shut the motor off for a bit and do it again have to do the same thing. Pretty consistant. Ran it for over 30 minutes and never lost the flow.

also on my 50 Honda the water indicator has a nozzle if you will. Didn’t see this on the 75 but am suspicious because the hose is swollen at the end like it had something in it previous and the hole it sits in doesn’t make since being so big. I did however not see one listed in the parts diagram. I am goin to look again.

any thoughts on what I am seeing and does anyone know if there should be a nipple on the end?

Just found the nipple. It is the same one as on my 50 so I can use that one. Still curious on the other issue

In my experience, that nipple, if there even is one, is not critical. If you have a bulge in the hose, I'd want to know what it was and then move on.

Is the second issue uneven water flow? If so, I've had to mess with them a bit to restore it and get it consistent. I use air pressure, blowing back through it while running. That back flushes that circuit breaking up any little gobs that might exist. Might have to do that 8 or 10 times.....

I agree it doesn't require that nozzle to work.

I'm not saying this is your problem but most folks don't pay as much attention as they should to that piece of tell tale tubing.

First off, those tubes get hardened with age over a few seasons. When they harden, they take a "set" whereever there is a bend and the inflexability causes small debris to jam in a hardened tube when the same sized pieces would easily pass through a fresh, supple tube. So, it's a good idea to replace the tube every few seasons.

The other problem with them is that they are very specifically routed from the engine out to the side case. Routing the tubing differently from the way Honda intended will cause problems with the flow if not stop it completely. If the side case was removed and attention wasn't given to the routing of that tube, then 90% of the time it won't be reinstalled correctly.

Both a hardened tube and a mis-routed tube will drive you nutz trying to figure out why the tell-tale doesn't work reliably.

I agree with Alan about blowing shop air back through the bypass. If you don't have shop air I recommend taking the fitting out of the block and starting the engine with the pump submerged in a trashcan. The power of the pump will clear ANYTHING out of that bypass instantly.

Of course, this last method is more work and hassle and would, on most outboards, require the removal of the tubing and side case. But it is WAY more effective at clearing the bypass than pushing trimmeer line down inside. BECAUSE, often, trimmer line will push a piece of rock or twig or whatever down and the tell tale works for a bit then slows to a dribble or quits. BECAUSE, the rock,twig, or whatever....comes back up and blocks it again. BECAUSE, the trimmer line doesn't blast it out of there. It will happen over and over and over again until a more effective approach is used.

Good luck.

I am going to get it fully submerged in water and try it. Being that I just went through the cooling system and blew through the line pretty sure it is not plugged but will double check. I put the nozzle in from the 50 and it just tightens up the stream to a fine jet spray. When I mentioned the bulge I meant at the end of the tube where the little nozzle goes.

An update. Because the engine was starting quite hard cold and knowing that the engine had been sitting, I pulled the carb stack. This was a blessing in disguise. The lower port cooling jacket was plugged up wait sand. Next off came the head. Lower cylinder jacket on the block and head was plugged very similar topics one sees on the net.

I do have a question. On each side of the lower cylinder is a hole which I assume is the exit for water. One side hole is larger than the other. Curious where these holes head to? Can’t get in there to see and just want to make sure there are no other hidden issues. I can bring a 4 mm borescope home from work. Pretty sure I can get it into the holes.

Those passage could be for oil return to sump. But that's just a guess because I've never been in one of those engines and don't know for sure.