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1996 Evinrude 150 No Oil Light after VRO pumped rebuild

T

tc80211

Member
[FONT="]Howdy all! Thanks to all of you I have kept my 1996 Evinrude 150 on the water! And now a new issue has come up, one I have never seen before. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]backstory-> I noticed my oil consumption was way off. Burning through a gallon of oil every 10-15 gallons of fuel. Way too high as it should be 50 to 1. I ordered a VRO rebuild kit. Rebuilt and consumption was back to normal! Hooray. Ram the boat 6 or 7 times for around 20 hours and then I got a “no oil” light with a solid alarm that lasted 10 seconds. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]I immediately cut the motor and check my oil tank. It’s full. I checked the oil bulb, hard as it should be. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]one note, I noticed the no oil light but my friend noticed the the no oil light would go out and the check engine light would go on. Then off. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]my knee jerk feeling is to take apart the VRO pump again and see if something failed. Any thoughts or anyone else have this experience?[/FONT]
 
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The first thing I would do is remove the oil supply line from the vro pump and squeeze the primer bulb several times to make sure there is no air in the oil line.Put the supply line on and squeeze the primer bulb till its hard.Mix the fuel in your fuel tank 50 to 1,take a sharpie and mark the oil level in the tank.Ensure all your hose connections are tight including the fuel system.Run the boat and see if the problem persists.
 
stork55 said:
The first thing I would do is remove the oil supply line from the vro pump and squeeze the primer bulb several times to make sure there is no air in the oil line.Put the supply line on and squeeze the primer bulb till its hard.Mix the fuel in your fuel tank 50 to 1,take a sharpie and mark the oil level in the tank.Ensure all your hose connections are tight including the fuel system.Run the boat and see if the problem persists.
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Excellent. Will be headed to the boat shortly and report back. Thanks!!
 
tc80211 said:
Excellent. Will be headed to the boat shortly and report back. Thanks!!
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one other thing to note, is while the alarm sounded and the NO OIL light came on, the boat never entered SLOW mode and my RPMs were never forced cut. Not sure if maybe thats an indicator the that gauge/alarm is faulty but worth noting.
 
tc80211 said:
one other thing to note, is while the alarm sounded and the NO OIL light came on, the boat never entered SLOW mode and my RPMs were never forced cut. Not sure if maybe thats an indicator the that gauge/alarm is faulty but worth noting.
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The light that comes on is NO OIL and then alternates sporadically with the CHECK ENGINE light the tone I hear is a continuous sound for at least 10 seconds. then the sound stops and the NO OIL light remains on. I turn everything of. Start back up and sometimes good for a bit and then it happens again.
 
So my friend was wrong, the NO OIL light comes on and the LOW OIL light sporadically flashes (not the Check Engine light as I thought above). I just went over to the boat and did the following:
- As recommended above, I removed the oil line from th VRO pump and pumped the bulb to clear any air from the line.

- I then connected a 1/4" tube and filled it with oil, connected to the oil inlet on the VRO pump and ran the motor. The VRO pump pumped in the oil as expected.
- I then removed the VRO pump and inspected it. Nothing out of the ordinary. I opened it up and the diaphragms both look as fresh as the day i put them in just a couple of months ago. Nothing out of place, no tears.
- Something worth noting. A few of the lines where they connect come off easily once I remove the hose clamps. They are the stock hose clamps that dont have much clamping force. Could this be letting in unnecessary air?
- I reconnected everything and ran the boat on ear muffs (its on my trailer) for 20 minutes, revving it up every so often. No alarms. no lights. sounds as I expect. Smells as I expect.
I'm now leaning towards the alarm gauge being bad (it is 27 years old)... But not totally sure. Going to drop her in my local lake and just run around in circles to see if i can get the alarm to sound and also run it long enough to have a measureable consumption of oil (if i mark the oil tank and so on)
 
Funny that the low oil and no oil lights both come on,2 different sensors.I have to agree with you on the gauge,if you can get ahold of another system check gauge I would try switching them out and see.Also check your wiring to make sure theres no problem there
 
stork55 said:
Funny that the low oil and no oil lights both come on,2 different sensors.I have to agree with you on the gauge,if you can get ahold of another system check gauge I would try switching them out and see.Also check your wiring to make sure theres no problem there
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Just ordered a guage to see. looking at the back of my gauge cluster, its corrision central. If it's not the gauge, i would imagine i need to take time to re-do this wiring.
 
ok. So. Changed my fuel filter and went out on the lake today to try and reproduce the "Noi oil" issue... No I have a hesitation issue that feels like fuel stravation.
- after running fine for 5-10 minutes i took her up to 5k RPM and she wouldnt hold, would "bounce" between 4750 and 5k
- Then from idle, major hesitation off the line, often stalling out
Feels like fuel starvation, so going to switch my fuel filter back and try again.
 
Take someone with you and have them squeeze the fuel primer bulb to see if it picks up rpm,if it does prettygood chance its the fuel pump.Also try a portable fuel tank and fuel !ine to rule out the boat fuel system,make sure youre using mixed fuel.It didnt do this before you tore down and inspected the vro pump so double check your work.
 
stork55 said:
Take someone with you and have them squeeze the fuel primer bulb to see if it picks up rpm,if it does prettygood chance its the fuel pump.Also try a portable fuel tank and fuel !ine to rule out the boat fuel system,make sure youre using mixed fuel.It didnt do this before you tore down and inspected the vro pump so double check your work.
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you read my mind. Just brought it back to the lake and pumping the bulb did it fact pick the rpm’s back up to where they should be. After 26 years, it’s probably time to replace this darn VRO Pump.
 
Did you look at / test these check valves in the air motor housing ?----They are in that rectangular bit under the airmotor housing I think.
 
racerone said:
Perhaps test run with a small 6 gallon portable tank and hose.
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so the vro pump was def leaking. I took it over to my bench to inspect closer and the area with the check valves came off. Entirely. Broken plastic. So just ordered a full replacement. Will report back when it’s installed. Should be here in 2 days.
 
<p>
A factory new pump or an " online " special ????-----I know that I will never buy a new VRO pump.-----Very easy to repair for me.</p>
 
racerone said:
<p>
A factory new pump or an " online " special ????-----I know that I will never buy a new VRO pump.-----Very easy to repair for me.</p>
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the rectangular bottom of the air motor broke off and the plastic on the oil side cracked. And the wagon wheel was torn. And I found another crack on the air pulse inlet. Needless to say at this point I just bit the bullet. Expensive but I’m hoping to gain peace of mind and get another 26 years out of this new pump
 
ok, new pump in and boat running great! And then NO OIL alarm sounds and light comes on. While it was on I disconnected the 4-pin connector to the VRO pump and the alarm continued, so I think after all this I still do have a bad gauge. Either way at least I can go boating today, hooray!
 
You stated your alarm remained on when you unplugged the vro pump,try unplugging the wire from the oil tank also and see if the alarm stops.
 
stork55 said:
You stated your alarm remained on when you unplugged the vro pump,try unplugging the wire from the oil tank also and see if the alarm stops.
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The oil tank wire goes to "low oil" which is not lighting up at all. Only the No Oil light is coming on. I have a new gauge coming in this week. Should be able to further narrow this down, hopefully its just a failed gauge, though I imagine my wiring needs a once over
 
I know that but with your vro unplugged the alarm should not be sounding,I was just suggesting to unplug the connection to the oil tank to see if the alarm stops.
 
The saga continues. Here’s where we are at:
- new vro pump installed. Running great. Consuming the correct amount of oil.
- “no oil” light/alarm comes on even with “no oil” sensor on the vro pump unplugged
- unplugging “sensor on oil tank has no effect either way
- no service check gauge installed. Didn’t fix anything. No Oil light still comes on.

so next up? I guess wiring? The harness itself? I don’t really know.
 
It's just about got to be in the harness somewhere with the alarm still sounding even with the vro unplugged.You said in a earlier post the gauge and connection were corroded,did you clean the connection well?Start inpecting the wirining harness from the gauge back towards the remote also in the engine itself where the wiring bundle is smaller looking for bare wires.
 
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