56 Firestone 5hp cooling problem

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  • August 19, 2016 at 2:21 am #5011
    grdgator
    Participant

      Hello. I bought a 56 Firestone 5 hp outboard recently. To be succinct, I replaced the coils, condensers, plug wires and cleaned the points. It fired on the second pull and starts easily.

      Now the problem: the water pump. I replaced the impeller but no water out of the telltale. I am now using a drill to test, but can’t get the water pump to pump. There are rubber seals at the inlet in the foot, below the water pump, and coming out of the pump up into the motor head. There is no bailamatic pump, only the water pump. I tried using silicon rubber to tighten the seal on the bottom of the pump, and an o ring on the top of the pump to seal around the drive shaft. So far, no success. Any suggestions? Thanks.

      August 19, 2016 at 2:34 am #42331
      Doug Wilson
      Participant

        US Member

        is the water level high enough some of the older ones water needs to be above the pump for it to prime

        Doug

        how is it motors multiply when the garage lights get
        turned off?

        August 19, 2016 at 2:38 am #42332
        wedgie
        Participant

          I assume it’s a bailamatic pump housing without the bailer impeller? Check out this thread for a fix by Mumbles.

          viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1060&p=5670&hilit=bailer#p5670

          August 19, 2016 at 6:59 am #42339
          frankr
          Participant

            A Firestone would only have the main pump housing and impeller, with a different pump cover. So blocking off the bailer housing does not apply.

            As for why it does not work, that is hard to say from a distance. But it is important that the seals all be in good condition. That includes the o-ring under the cover. The fact that those pumps are up so high was their downfall. They need to work well enough to lift the water to establish a prime. It would be great if it were underwater, but that usually is not the case. But it certainly helps if the water level is up somewhere close to the pump.

            August 19, 2016 at 12:34 pm #42346
            ken-w
            Participant

              US Member

              Any Air leak is a Killer, I had one pulling air in from under the impeller cup, a little JB weld filled the gap..

              Ken

              August 26, 2016 at 2:11 am #42695
              wedgie
              Participant

                Here’s a manual that may be of help.

                http://www.fiberglassics.com/wiki/image … m60001.pdf

                Except now that I look at the table of contents I don’t see the 5 horse. I do have a 600+ page service manual in pdf. I’ll see if I can post it here. 😉

                August 26, 2016 at 2:30 am #42696
                wedgie
                Participant

                  Here’s "part 2" of a service/ parts diagrams , hopefully with some relevant info.

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