TOPIC: 57 BigTwin wont pump water???

This one has me dazed and confused. And I have been around and around with a few outboards in my time. The first thing I did when I got it home was pull the foot and look at the pump. Looked fine fairly new. So after i got back to the point to test run it, no water out the leg hole. Is there some secret I am missing here. Obviously from the other issues I found the last guy almost knew what he was doing. BTW this one is not new enough to have a thermostat. Ideas?

While you have the leg off check to see that the PO install the pin in that drives the pump.

Then take a hose and make an adapter (old washer machine hose and a hose clamp) and hook to the copper line and turn on the water slowly to make sure there are not anything stopping up. the feed line block etc...

198tpi,

I once found a whole "dirt-dobber nest" built in the foot of a BigTwin, so I'm guessing that something is stopping it up, someplace AND TallTexan is LIKELY 100% correct.
("Our OBs" are mostly 4-6 decades old & it could be a 100 different problems.)

yours, satx

Make sure that the hub of the impeller has not broken loose from the vanes, if this has happened the hub spins but the vanes don't move. I've seen several like this particularly the aftermarket ones.

Thanks for the ideas.
I finally got this sussed. I went back into the pump and the impeller on second look seemed to have a lot of set. Not worn a but a tiny bit, still soft but set, all the vanes curved. So I flipped it over blew out the foot passages and reassembled. I also filled the barrel higher (i need to get a hose adaptor for these) and this time after a long 20-30 seconds it primed and pumped. I also told the owner (club member) to replace the impeller before next years running.

I do like using a barrel because a hose can cover up a weak pump or other problem.