Flooded outboard?

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Bluejayz79

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Hi folks,

I recently just bought a new 15hp Manual Mercury fourstroke. I took is out a day ago and everything was running fine. Today i went to the lake and started the motor up fine. While in reverse i did not see a rock and hit it with the prop. I was not moving that fast at all and the engine cut out. I attempted to restart the motor multiple times. The motor tried to kick over a few times but i believe i may have flooded it? I also was reading something about the shear pin and that it can break when you hit a rock. Does anyone have any advice on how i should proceed?

Thanks a bunch
Chad
 
First start by seeing if the prop will spin with the motor off and in gear. It shouldn't move more than 1/2" or so, and then it should lock. If it spins, you've sheared your shear pin, and it did it's job. If that's the case, remove the prop, and replace the shear pin and go fishing.

However.... and this is the not so great stuff... there is a chance that you bent your prop shaft, or did smeother internal damage. If that's the case, you need to open her up and see what's going on. How bad was the prop damaged? It should be pretty mangled if you did something to the internals.
 
Pretty sure the prop will have a rubber hub and not a shear pin.

If you were just moving in reverse at idle speed I doubt you hurt anything.

Look in your owner's manual for how to start a flooded engine. If you flooded it really bad, you may need to pull spark plugs to dry them off - I'd say there's a decent chance that after sitting it may restart pretty easily now.
 
See, I should read a little better, didn't see he was in reverse and at near idle speed. Question is, going in reverse I think would had a greatly likelihood of damage, since the prop/prop shaft would be forced into the gearing, rather than pushed out away from them.

I'm probably scaring the daylights out of the OP, sorry for that. See if you can get her started, and go from there.
 
Hey guys thanks for the input. Here what i tried.

In neutral prop spins freely
In reverse prop will not move beyond 1/4 turn or so
In forward prop spins but not freely. It seems to make a click after each full rotation (Sounds like it should?)

I did press the fuel primer quite a few times and squeeze the bulb a lot. After a little bit of sitting the motor did start up but died out before i pushed in the choke. It sure seems like i just flooded it under frustation. Hope to be back on the water soon =) Trout ponds open up.

Chad
 
Bluejayz79 said:
Hey guys thanks for the input. Here what i tried.

In neutral prop spins freely
In reverse prop will not move beyond 1/4 turn or so
In forward prop spins but not freely. It seems to make a click after each full rotation (Sounds like it should?)

I did press the fuel primer quite a few times and squeeze the bulb a lot. After a little bit of sitting the motor did start up but died out before i pushed in the choke. It sure seems like i just flooded it under frustation. Hope to be back on the water soon =) Trout ponds open up.

Chad

Exactly:
In reverse it shouldn't move much in either direction.
In forward it will ratchet (click) in one direction and lock (not spin) in the other.
 
Today fired up the motor. It started on the second pull. The weather was fairly cold. If i tried to push the choke in the motor tried to stall. I could smell the gasoline burning off. Once the motor warmed up enough i disconnected the fuel line and let the motor run itself out of gas. The motor was kind of shakey while running it. Tommorow I will pull the plugs and check them out. I have a few spares so i may just add them in. Sounds to me like the plugs may be fouled. What do you guys think?

She did go into forward and reverse and ran fine.

Thanks again
Chad
 
you should have ran it in a bucket first to test if everything is ok before taking it out on the water. remember never to go boating with a problematic outboard.

since it ran, the problem is likely to be simple and not internal. see if any plug cap/hi tension wire could have gotten loose from the impact, unlikely but check it just in case. if it shudders while running with the smell of gasoline, check if all cylinders are firing. when you remove the plugs, you'd see unburnt fuel on a dead plug. replace dead plugs and check for spark before putting them back on.
on the other hand, 4stroke plugs don't foul easy. so any dead plug is likely due to bad ignition or a problem in the fuel system.
 
Actually did run it in a barrel. I was not out on the water. I apoligize for the confusion. Thanks for the input and in the morning after work I will do a few more checks. It's great to have some help especially for a newbie like me =).

Ty
 

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