Force 90 lower unit

[Pittguy]

Rookie is back for another question. Just bought 1700XR with Force 90 outboard. I used water muffs to flush and start motor for a minute. They don’t seal great so didn’t trust for long.

Did not see a stream out like I expected but when off I saw some water drop out of the first ridge of lower unit above prop. I thought leak right away but found something else.

On either side of the bolts about an inch away on either side of bolt were much smaller holes. One especially (because it was the low point?) had water coming out.

I have no idea what these 8 holes are or if water should escape? They are less than 1/8” or smaller. Thoughts? Should there be an escape further up? I did not have motor trimmed down.

Thanks

[golfwins]

Are these the holes you are talking about? I have no clue about outboards, but if these are the holes you are asking about, that's where your muffs would go.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Pittguy]

No not those. Yes that is where I put the muffs. The holes I see are on the underside of the ridge above your circle. The same plate where the bolts go upward to connect/tighten the lower unit cover I guess.

[golfwins]

Hopefully one of the other guys can help you. I don't know a thing about outboards. In case you don't know, you can use this site to find parts for it. I enter my serial number at the top and it finds the catalog for me, but you can also manually browse for it.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/.../parts-catalog

[mmwjr]

I think the holes in question are drain passages. I suspect you need to replace the water pump impeller.

[Pittguy]

Impeller is in the lower unit area near water entry slots I’m guessing?

[jparsons121]

Those are drains for the lower housing. If I recall there are two on each side and they ‘pee’ straight down right in the red circle area in the photo above.

[Pittguy]

From looking around aside from impeller I may have to be sure there isn’t a clock in output near motor unit. Also I might try to run in a tub. Rather than muffs.

[mmwjr]

The impeller is located at the top of the lower unit, where it unbolts.

“Clock”?

[Pittguy]

Clog. Autocorrect sorry.

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by Pittguy

Clog. Autocorrect sorry.

To funny 😂

[Pittguy]

Thanks for all the help. The solution was to run in a horse trough like abs plastic tub I had. If anyone looks to buy one I think former owner of my house had an idea at one point to have a koi pond. Back on track though.

Ran motor awhile and had spitting water from two exhaust holes under main motor box and a heck of a lot more coming from prop opening and point of the “whale tail”.

Put it in forward and revers no troubles so looks like time to hit the lake finally. And get rid of the muffs.

[golfwins]

I smoked my brand new impeller a couple of weeks ago on muffs. I've never had a problem with them, but this was the first time on my 2700 after an impeller change. I took it for granted and started the engine and just assumed all was good. It never primed and my impeller turned to powder, lol. I have a Bravo 3 outdrive so totally different than an outboard, but similar results. Glad you got it figured out.

[mmwjr]

Let us know how she performs on the water.

[Pittguy]

Took her out Saturday and all went well with water circulation and general running. A couple times after I took a break for a while it seemed to take an inordinate amount of cranking to finally restart. Maybe I will run a set of plugs?

[jparsons121]

Wouldn’t hurt.
Pull the plugs and see how they’re burning.
2-strokes will foul plugs much faster than your standard 4-stroke.
Is it just warm starts that’s the issue or do you need to crank when cold as well?

[Pittguy]

The initial cold one at the dock I expected. The two warm ones throughout the day I didn’t.