Edit: Cool, typo in my first post! Should be "97" 15 HP Merc...
My question is about the water circulation - what is correct?
So, I'm a total newbie to my "new" 1997 15 HP 2 cycle Mercury outboard. It hadn't been run in a couple years, I plunked it in a barrel of water and got it to start and run. I do get some water trickling out of the little exit hole up on the motor. If I hold it to a high idle or higher, the trickle will generally increase to a steady stream. After running a few minutes, the water is pretty warm, but not real hot - steams a little but is not too hot to touch. Having no previous knowledge/experience about this motor and limited knowledge/experience with any outboard motors… what *should* the water stream behavior be? Do I have a leaky water tube/connector/seal somewhere? One more hint - when running, I get some water coming out the drain holes on the bottom of the drive shaft housing - is that normal? These things would seem to point to a leak, but not knowing what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure…
Assuming the answer to the above is yes, I have a leak: I have a service manual, so I can see there's a seal and "guide tube" that comes off the top of the water pump, and a tube the runs up inside the driveshaft housing from the lower unit with a seal on top of that. Is it typical for these seals to go bad and leak? What's the best procedure for accessing/checking those?
TIA...
My question is about the water circulation - what is correct?
So, I'm a total newbie to my "new" 1997 15 HP 2 cycle Mercury outboard. It hadn't been run in a couple years, I plunked it in a barrel of water and got it to start and run. I do get some water trickling out of the little exit hole up on the motor. If I hold it to a high idle or higher, the trickle will generally increase to a steady stream. After running a few minutes, the water is pretty warm, but not real hot - steams a little but is not too hot to touch. Having no previous knowledge/experience about this motor and limited knowledge/experience with any outboard motors… what *should* the water stream behavior be? Do I have a leaky water tube/connector/seal somewhere? One more hint - when running, I get some water coming out the drain holes on the bottom of the drive shaft housing - is that normal? These things would seem to point to a leak, but not knowing what it's supposed to do, I'm just not sure…
Assuming the answer to the above is yes, I have a leak: I have a service manual, so I can see there's a seal and "guide tube" that comes off the top of the water pump, and a tube the runs up inside the driveshaft housing from the lower unit with a seal on top of that. Is it typical for these seals to go bad and leak? What's the best procedure for accessing/checking those?
TIA...
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