Mercury 4hp Outboard run issues

 Mercury 4hp not running.

The Outboard is not really that old and has less than 50 hours on it, a lot less. But despite replacing the Carb and the fuel Filters, it's sick. If I can get it running, it will crap out after a minute or so and almost immediately if the gear shift is moved to fwd or reverse.

I was getting ready to bring the engine home, again, and take it to a service center along with my credit card!

But asking the club members, one suggested I check out the fuel pump - what fuel pump???

Turns out there is a fuel pump and change out is a 5 minute job. Two bolts, two hoses, no need to dismantle the engine to get to it. 

I searched for it online and found it for $125 or $21 on Amazon.  Duh!

Ordered it this morning. I should be able to change the fuel pump while the outboard is secure on it's mount - port side aft.  I'll syphon out as much fuel as I can and have plenty of spill pads beneath the engine before removing the fuel pump.

I guess that as we're located in the 'boating capitol' of the world ( hmmmm? ) the local Amazon distribution center has the pumps available locally.

We took a trip up to lake worth around 4pm yesterday. We got home around 8pm, the new Fuel Pump was sitting on our porch when we got home! 

The item looks identical to the ones I've seen online and has the same part number as I found online too. So it looks like a winner. I'm sewing today, so the earliest to get down to the boat is Friday.

The pump is mounted on the Stbd side of the outboard and we mount the outboard on the Port side facing forwards, so the pump is on the Cockpit side of the engine. There's a lot of Stainless steel tubing for the Bimini in that area, so it's not a complete breeze, but pretty close. I'll put a bucket over the prop and shaft, fill it with water so that we can test the engine in situ. 

Peggy will be onboard with me when I work on the fuel pump, I'll encourage her to take a video of the process.

Tools needed:

• Socket Set
• Philips head screw driver.
• Rags to catch any fuel drips from the hoses and to clean the pump mounting surface.
• Hose clamp pliers to ensure the tank doesn't try to drain.

If it really is as easy as it's shown in the YouTube Videos, it should take about 10 minutes - but was done on an outboard engine stand in a Garage, so perhaps add a couple of hours to that guestimate.

Well, that didn't work!

So far I have changed the Carb, Fuel Pump, Spark Plug, Fuel Filter and the Fuel.  Not looking good.

I give up! So I took it to Drummonds Outboards in Deerfield Beach. They cannot work on it for at least a couple of weeks. Staffing issues and swamped with work - nice place to be but.... Anyway, Zack informed me that they have all the parts they might need to service the engine, but it might be expensive. Glum!

See you on the water, but we won't be using our outboard this month.

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Gearbox Oil Change on C34 Universal M25XP

Easy Gearbox Oil Change

Changing the gearbox oil is not something we do very often but it is a pain in the neck trying to refill the gearbox after removing the old oil.

Equipment required ( to do it my way )

• Socket & Wrench to fit the Dipstick ( I think ours is a 9/16" socket )
• Oil Extraction pump - I use the same pump to do an Oil Change on the Engine
• 3/8" plastic hose - OD diameter to fit the Dipstick hole, ID to fit the Oil Change hose.
• Clean up towels
• Fresh Gearbox Oil - there is a label on our gearbox 'Use Auto Gearbox Oil'

Here's how I change the Gearbox Oil on Eximius.

Prep the Oil Change Pump ( OCP ) and completely empty it of any previously extracted oil.

Remove the cabin steps to gain access to the top of the engine and use a socket and wrench to remove the Dipstick which is located on the Port Side forward edge of the top of the gear box. It's a challenge but once removed, wipe it down with a clean cloth and put it back in place but do not screw it down, instead just put it into the gear box and withdraw it then note the Oil level on the dipstick. Ours is normally at the groove in the dipstick. Now remove the dip stick again.

Ok, now we know what level the oil should be.

Again, leaning over the top of the engine, insert the 3/8" hose down between the heat exchanger and the back of the engine and insert the hose into the gearbox Dipstick hole.

Using that hose as a sheath, insert the Oil Change Pump hose down into the dipstick hole as far as you can, down into the gearbox dipstick hole.

Next, use the Oil Change Pump to suck out the Gearbox oil. Only takes a few pumps of the OCP handle.

Withdraw the OCP hose from the 3/8" sheath but leave the sheath hose in place.

Insert a suitable funnel into the top end of the sheath hose.

Now that the oil removed from the gearbox is in the OCP container, pour the old oil into a measuring cup in order to measure the replacement, new, oil.

With the correct amount of replacement oil in a measuring cup, pour it into the funnel that is in the end of the sheath hose.  Now the gearbox should have enough fresh oil that replaced the old oil.

Now remove the sheath hose and check the gearbox oil level with the dipstick, it should be the same as the original dip. If need be, add more oil by removing the dipstick, reinserting the sheath hose and funnel then add small amounts of oil checking between with the dipstick until the correct level is attained. Don't forget to reinsert the Gearbox Dipstick bolt!

Using the concept of the sheath hose makes it a whole lot easier removing and replacing the gear box oil when the fill point is really awkward to reach.  

It is possible, with a good bit of boat Yoga, to reach the Dipstick bolt from the top of the engine, but if that doesn't work for you then empty the aft berth, remove the sub floor and crawl down to reach the dipstick bolt just forward of the port top edge of the gearbox.

Note. I have read stories of owners that removed the gearbox oil drain plug and then had a hard time of getting a replacement sealing washer for the plug. However, draining the oil from the drain plug is the way to go if you want a 100% change.  Your boat. 

See you on the water.

Fort Lauderdale to Jensen Beach - Washup

Review of our Trip from Fort Lauderdale to Jensen Beach and back.

Memorial Day Weekend.

06:15 Thursday May 22nd till 15:30 Monday May 26th 2025

Quick Recap:

We sailed from our home port to Lake worth on Thursday 22nd, Motored from Lake worth to Jensen Beach on Friday 23rd. Stayed on a Mooring Friday night, Saturday and departed Sunday morning back to Lake Worth and then from Lake Worth to home port on Monday.

Sailing:

Not much :( we were able to sail for a couple of hours on the way up to lake worth. The rest of the trip was under motor. Wind was either too light or on the nose. It happens.

Sails were looking good. All the lines were good, Furler, Winches and steering all good.

Motoring:

Lot's. Engine pushed us really well, highest speed was 7.9knots. Engine temp remained steady even during the times we pushed our 3 pot Universal M25XP to WOT at 2,200 rpm ( that's as forwards as we can move the throttle.)

Navigation

I mounted the Samsung Tablet at the helm, it's big but that worked in our favor. It's running AquaMaps and we have the full subscription. It offers additional nav data and I recorded at least one of our tracks so that I can see how that works out.  

We have a Power brick on board and I had that plugged into the Tablet at the helm so there were no power issues.

Communications

VHF works great, we had several severe weather warnings pop up on #4. We used #68 for interboat chats, #16 on the Ocean and #9 on the waterways.

Food:

We ate well. We did miss the Picnic Lunch on Saturday and the Dinner on Saturday evening, so we ate all of the food we took with us. Best meal was the Shrimp Fettuccini that Peg's had prepared earlier in the week.

Drinks:

We mistakenly did not 'fill' our water tanks and quickly consumed the bottled drinking water we had onboard, wanting to preserve our tanked water for showers. Plenty of Wine, Rum and Whiskey but ending up bringing most of that home. Our Buddies Mike and Barry delivered Gatorade and Bottled water to the boat when I was poorly on Saturday, a huge help! Next time bring lots of both.

Bedding:

Two sets of bedding, just as well as we had left a hatch open on the Ocean trip from Jensen to Lake Worth and soaked the V-Berth bedding.

Towels & Linens, Clothing.

We brought plenty to last the 5 days and had some left over. My new Tilley hat was worth the money.

Toiletries & First Aid Kit & Meds

We had plenty of everything, needed nothing special. Purely due to timing, I had meds enough through Wednesday morning but would have had an issue if we added another couple of days to the trip.

Refrigeration:

Our primary Fridge Freezer worked great - except that I had turned it off when we left the boat on Wednesday afternoon - and after loading it with our food. We had to toss out some of it.

Our secondary Fridge Freezer - BougRV - worked great except that it did not like the drop in voltage when we ran the AC. I need to rewire the 12v supply to the aft cabin, it suffers a voltage drop. So bigger wiring. I'll lookup the power requirements for the Bougrv fridge and make sure there's plenty of capacity.

The new Ice Maker worked pretty good. It did not perform as well on the boat as it did in our Air Conditioned home. It does make ice quicker than our main fridge freezer, and it is easier to get Ice from it compared to having do dig down in to the main unit. It is currently installed adjacent to the BougRV portable fridge freezer, not the best location but it is secure. I should make a hold down strap for it.

Cooking:

Total Success using our portable Induction Cooktop. Did not use any propane at all over the weekend. I am going to go ahead and remove the propane cooker and supply.

Our induction kettle - cute but dangerous - The kettle is really a camping kettle, silicone, folding but not so clever when it full of hot water! After searching for a decent Induction cooktop Kettle I decided to switch to an Electric Kettle. I'll write up a review when we test it next weekend. It's 1.2kw.

Pots -n- pans - Still my favorite set of pans - Larger Skillet, Medium Skillet ( have to try using that to make Omelets ) and a Sauce Pan. They heat up so quickly on the Induction cooktop. Seem to be pretty non-stick and stack up for storage in the oven ( Soon to be galley storage cupboard unless I go for an Air Fryer/Toaster/ Combo oven.)

I did toss out some duplicated utensils, just wasting space.

Air Conditioning:

Another success; We ran the AC for a few hours on Saturday afternoon using the Honda Generator, but if we needed it at any time, we ran the AC on the Batteries. The lowest we took our 300AH LiFePo4 batteries was to 49%  And we have two more 100Ah batteries to wire into the system.

Mooring system.

I used our Anchor Snubber for the mooring line at Jensen Beach. over kill. In Lake worth, the mooring pennants are really beefy and barely fit over our cleats.  I'll make a couple of mooring loops that do fit.

Fuel:

Our tank was 7/8 full ( 20 gallons ) at the dock. We carried an additional 10 Gallons on deck. Added 4 Gallons on Saturday night, arrived at the dock with over 3/8 ( 9 gallons ) left.

• Thursday  - 4 hours
• Friday - 8 hours
• Saturday - 0 hours
• Sunday -7.5 hours
• Monday - 8 hours

Total 18 gallons / 27.5 hours = ~ 0.7gph  

I did fill the Honda Generator, about 1 gallon Gasoline. Didn't use it all.

What to do before the next trip:

• Complete the upgrade of the LiFePo4 additional batteries
• Get the Mercury Outboard fixed.
• New Bridge list ( laminated list blew overboard )
• Install new Cabin fixed ports ( badly crazed )
• New Kettle
• New Mooring loops
• New Towel holders on inside Head Door
• Hold down straps for the dinghy
• Hold down strap for the Ice Maker
• Curtains for the 6 opening ports ( 4 main cabin, 2 V-berth ) They need to allow for the port to open. ( Decided we'll go for the Clozure blinds for the opening ports. )
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Things we would do differently

Reduce the Schedule! If the club has another destination cruise ( I hope they do! ) then we'll leave at least a couple of days before and plan to stay out longer. 

If we're on the ICW, then we'll only use the Bob423 tracks during the risky parts of the trip. The stress of trying to stay within such a skinny line ruins the trip.

Ok, let the work continue.

See you on the water.