Mouse in lower unit

[THEGPW]

Ok just wanted to share my adventure a few weeks back. First time in the water after winter storage. Took off, no power high rpms high temp warning alarm, shut it down to idle, temp drops everything fine, rev it up heat it up. Water pump was done last year. Tried termostat no good. So I hear horror stories about how quickly a plastic bag can block the ports and burn up pump and figure that has to be it. Wrecks the weekend, I drag it home pull the lowewr unit and find a dead rotting maggot infested mouse right on top of the pump housing and a nest made of nice thick packing blanket material blocking the entire passage that runs out the prop! So this tiny Ninja mouse has crawled onto the trailer with a mouthful of stuffing (100 plus times?? I mean really how much can they put in their mouths!) crawls up the tiedown strap and jumps a foot at least to the metal outdrive scampers out the stainless prop and drives in the hole JUST TO WRECK MY DAY! SO people cover your prop when the thing is stored. On the plus side I learned how to pull the lower unit, change the impellor and how to pull the outdrive. Had to do the out drive because while working on the thing noticed water squirting out of the gasket where the driveshaft is (not good) That routine impellor replacement last year,, not needed but the way 15 year old boat and the thing was fine still pliable etc. Anyway the shop forgot the small o ring at the oil passage and the large o ring at the water passage was crimped and leaking into the dricve shaft. So thank you little mouse because without the over heating trouble would not have noticed the leaking water from the gasket. And how was your day?

Safe boating to you all

Rob

[CountryME]

Thanks for your story Rob. All these stories of numb so called marine mechanics who can't even do an impeller replacement right just reinforces my decision to do all this kind of work myself. It may take more time, but it costs less and I know it's done right. Happy Boating and enjoy your new found confidence in working on your own boat.

-JP

[jrsick]

Great story, and demonstrates value in taking a look yourself. It's a little intimidating to think about pulling the lower unit, but when you do it one time you find that it is not all that difficult. Lots of youtube videos with step-by-step. Glad to see you found the problem.

[GlennW]

With a hydrolic floor jack such as the nascar style, one person can easily manipulate the lower unit on and off very easy.
I have changed impellers many times this way and can be done in about 30 mins.

I hate rats also, we had a 30 year old boat we bought new, My dad did. Long story short we used it 3 weekends and realized it was too small for a family of 6 so we bought a bigger one and My dad put this one in my Grandads barn and forgot about it....fast forward 28 years later after my Grandfather passed away and we went in the garage and there it was.
Everything was just like new except dust etc,,,,and rat turds, chic bones, snake skins and a few I don't know's.
Any way after a few months of unceasing the engine and cleaning out the debris we finally took back on the water after all those years.
We would get in the water to cool off and when we got back in the boaqt there would be rat turds....Wife freaking out!
This happened on many occasions, I guess he would come out for a potty break everytime we would jump in.
We set traps, bait, poison you name, just could not catch him.
For some reason I had to store it at my brothers house and his cat killed it. This thing was about a foot long not counting the tail and I would guess it weighed around 4-5 lbs.
Wife never did get back in that boat.

[THEGPW]

OK gang, last year boat didn't get out. This year I go to prep it and notice Fuzz down inside the prop. I had cardboard over the prop when boat was in shed. I start digging it out and,,,,yup another nest in the water passages, not as far up I checked with a mini cam. BUT same deal. WHAT the heck? The first mouse died. HOW, WHY? I have questions. Its such a random thing, is it taught are generations returning to their nest? its 12 years later? I don't get it and have questions. They have to work really hard to do this. Its not just a mouse strolling by and diving in a hole.

[mmwjr]

They love nesting over the winter. IMO cardboard is a bad choice, try a piece of plywood. You can remove the prop and drill a hole in the plywood then use the prop nut to hold it tight to the drive. You may need to make some spacer to get it tight. I have a friend who once had muskrats get into his boat and chewed up his seats making nexts and his boat was stored on his lift for the winter.