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Yamaha F50 Outboard not spraying water from vent hole???

101mph

New member
Hi,

I have a Yamaha F50 4 stroke outboard motor and all of a sudden it seems, the water which used to spray very well out of the vent hole, is not coming out very much at all. It just sort of dribbles out when the engine is at idle (it used to pee out at a good rate) and comes out a little better when cruising at about 3000 rpm.

I checked the pickup screens at the bottom of the lower unit and there was no clog. I also unplugged the flush fitting at the front of the engine and saw that water was shooting out at pretty good pressure at that point.

I also tried hooking up a garden hose with the suction cups to the lower unit screen area and tried to force water through to see if water would shoot out the vent hole any better. It didn't.

So I really don't know what to do at this point. I did drive the boat for short periods of time and didn't get any over heating, but I'm still worried that there is something wrong with the water pump or something.

I'm pretty new at this stuff but I am fairly handy and I really don't want to take this to a mechanic if I don't have to.

What else should I try to narrow down what might be the cause or is this indicative to a water pump issue??

As I said it was almost like a light switch - one minute it was peeing out water fine like it always has, and a while later when I went to use the boat again I noticed that it wasn't.

Thanks for any help.
 
Just to follow up.

I cleaned out the vent hole using a piece of wire and this fixed the problem. The vent hole must've have been plugged up slightly.
 
Glad to hear you fixed it... Next time if it is more difficult and a short piece of wire doesn't fix it... Use weed trimmer line that will snake its way back through everything and clear a clog without causing damage.
 
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