No water in strainer

[Gregm]

Please help!

I have a 2004 210 with zr6 engine. The water pump isn’t working. I tried replacing the Impellar and cleaned strainer. I also disconnected the hose going into the strainer from bottom of boat and used water hose to remove any debris out the bottom of boat. Hooked it all back up and I see water going into the strainer when I initially start the boat but then it seems to stop as I don’t see water swirling around as i normally would. Any advice before giving up on the weekend and taking to dealer Monday??

Thanks

[Rednucleus]

Is this with boat on the water or using a fake a lake/garden hose?

[Gregm]

This is testing on the ramp backed into the lake

[bturner]

My thoughts and questions.....

• Check the trailer bunks to see if they're covering the through hull fitting for the water inlet. Simple and stupid but these are the types of things that can happen.
• Is the check valve open on the through hull fitting. Some people close these during winterization or when running the boat out of the water.
• Pull the strainer off and make sure the O ring is still there. I've seen strainers reinstalled without the O ring. No O ring, no seal and the pump is unable to create vacuum to pull in the water.
• This goes with the above, check and make sure the strainer is tight and making a good seal.
• Check to see that the belt on the engine that drives the pump is installed and installed correctly. I've actually seen this one before also.
• If all the above checks out, pull the impeller and...

1. Make sure the impeller is there. I've seen guys and shops pull the impeller during winterization and not reinstall them until summer commission.
2. Check the condition of the impeller.
3. Some impellers are splined, some are keyed. If yours is keyed, make sure the keyway is still there and installed correctly. No keyway, no workie.

This would be my list in the order I would troubleshoot. Let us know what you find.

[jpwhit]

Assuming nothing is wrong with the impeller. Most common cause of what you're describing, is the o-ring fell out of the strainer cover and air is leaking in around the cover. Second most common cause is some other air leak on the suction side of the raw water pump. A fairly common cause of air leaks is someone tightened one of the clamps on the transmission cooler too much and deformed the flange on the transmission cooler. Another possibility, but it fairly rare, is a hose is collapsing somewhere on the suction side of the raw water pump. That mostly happens when some installs the wrong kind of hose somewhere on the suction side.

[bturner]

So, what did you find?