Overheated and out of B.A.S.S. Open (END RESULT)

[GEEBASS2000]

I would like to say the entire staff of Oneida Lake Marina is total FIRST CLASS and provides great Service!!! If you ever find yourself in need of service on a Honda or Yamaha outboard and are in the Oneida Lake area make sure you check them out. Not only did they fix my overheat issue the owner was kind enough to help me out after hours when I had a road hazard with my trailer on my way home with my boat.

Now on to what caused my overheat issue with my Honda BF250. I have to say as happy as I am with the dealer I am not so happy with the Honda. Come to find out what caused my overheat was a part failure. In the words of the dealer they said they don't ever see this part fail and it is not part of regular service and the part that failed is not part of the impeller replacement kit. The part that failed was the (Impeller/Drive Shaft Key Way). This part is the small piece that goes between the drive shaft and the impeller, it is a small metal piece that only costs $24 retail. September 9th it cost me a $1,800 entry fee not to mention my tournament opportunity. The outboard has a grand total of 187 hours on it and the impeller it self looks great. The shaft key way failure caused a sudden loss of all H2O PSI. When you look at the Key way part that failed it basically stripped it did not break into 2 pieces it just kind of striped so the drive shaft would spin but the impeller would not.

My lesson learned from this is that when I replace the impeller I will now order a new key way and also replace it every time I replace the impeller, for the $24 it will be worth it. In normal (non Covid years) I would put 85 to 95 hours per year on my outboard so in the past with my other outboards I have replaced both the water impeller and the low and high pressure fuel filters every two years. I do have to say if another KEY WAY fails before the next 200 hours I will go back to Yamaha. I do have to say overall the Honda has been reliable, but for a non routine maintenance item to fail before 200 hours is a bit discouraging for an outboard that I willingly traded performance for reliability.

[yam911]

Honda prices seem right up there with Yamaha prices.

At $24 retail for a part worth a dollar or so, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

[Bassman Ia.]

A good hardware store would have a Woodruff key in that size. Maybe $1

[GEEBASS2000]

To me the issue is not that the part that is $24 or $1, the issue is how does it fail at 187 hours? I would think if it was built defective it would have failed in the first few hours of operation? I also would think if it was a maintenance item it would call for replacement, however it is not part of the 200 hour impellor replacement kit. How do I prevent it from happening again?

[Hickory Legend]

I hate this happened to you and all the money lost, But the key is just a small block of metal like in a lawn mower crank or on the shaft for the blade to shaft. On most items it take a good lick to shear the key. Hard to see how spinning a rubber impeller could cause that kind of force. Had to be bad key and just bad luck. Since this is not a common issue it hears, and not a known problem. Glad you got it fixed and hopefully you'll have many years of good service from here on out.

[Another Distraction]

Honda's are great, I run them commercially with thousands of hours on multiple engines. Sorry a key failed, hang in there.

When you replace an impeller buy the entire kit everytime.