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Water leak at powerhead 8hp mercury 1989

F

Fxbeaver

New member
I'm having very little to no water coming out of the engine so i tested the water pump with a cordless drill in a water tub and it pump fine so I plug a water hose at the water exit when sending water in and looking into the leg i see water leaking where the water pipe from the water pump enters the powerhead and very little water coming out of the water pipe. Any advice please
 
there is an upper seal at the top where the water pipe goes into, if u see water coming out there the seal is bad. you will probably have to pull the powerhead to replace it. have u tried reverse flushing the system? remove lower unit and attach garden hose to tell tale tube and let it flush anything out the leg.. u can also remove the water pipe and spin the pump a few turns with starter and water on muffs to clear that too.. blow out the water pipe as well and reconnect the lot.. as long as tell tale is flowing water u are good.

maybe u are not inserting the water pipe properly into the powerhead? can be tricky getting a good seal there (insert water pipe loose into powerhead first, THEN connect lower unit, that way u can be sure u have a good seal at the top) - with the motor locked on the tilt stopper, the pipe usually hangs on its own without touching anything (when u have it in the rubber seal firmly)..

try all that and see how it goes..
 
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Agree, upper seal (merc may call it a grommet - don't remember for sure).

Being a pre-95 model the seal is inside a little cover that is held in place by two screws and the top of the water tube has a flare, so it should be "permanently" fixed in place (shouldn't pull out when your remove the lower unit, should remain "attached" to the base of the powerhead.

There is a few "parts" at the top of the water tube attached to the exhaust plate. Parts numbered 12 through 16 on this link http://www.mercruiserparts.com/bam/subassembly/28327/496/150 are what's up there.

To get at this you need to pull the lower unit AND the exhaust housing (leg) to service the pieces. That usually requires the replacement of the exhaust housing gasket (between the leg and the exhaust plate) and the power head base gasket (between the power head and the exhaust plate) because it is unlikely that either will survive separating the power head from the plate (although you may get lucky and the two will stay together - maybe) or the exhaust plate from the exhaust housing (leg).

Yes, this is a bit of work but it's not rocket science - even doing it for the first time shouldn't take you more than an afternoon to disassemble, swap out parts and button it all back up. At minimum, a Seloc's manual should be part of the "tool kit".
 
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