Lower unit question (2007 VZ250)

[spinkick63]

I had to pull my lower unit because of a potential exhaust blockage (different thread). Ultimately, today was supposed to be the final straw in what was going on. So, yesterday I hooked up the boat to my truck and then hooked up water to the engine, Cranked up right away. But I noticed the tell-tale wasn't telling. Water was coming out the seam where lower unit meets mid section. Now what??? Pulled the lower unit and noticed the drive shaft would not rotate. Turns out the drive shaft collar and and spacer were worn. This means although the dealership that replaced the impeller (I saw the invoice for that work) replaced ONLY the impeller. They clearly re-used all other related wear-n-tear parts. AND put the washers that sit on the impeller incorrectly (supposed to be flat, wave, flat... was flat, flat, wave). I really hate cheap, low-Q work!

Anyway, enough rant. The real question... if I have my facts right, from front to back on the lower unit is the water pickup (speedometer and pressure?), shift gear, drive shaft, exhaust chamber.
I poured water through the opening below the impeller to make sure there were no obstructions and the water flowed out the water inlet as expected. I poured water in the water pickup (?) and the tube filled.

If I have it right, water should have also flowed out the inlet. Obstruction, right? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I have time to clear it as I'm waiting on parts that a dealership service department was too cheap to replace (yup, still gritting my teeth).

[BOATS]

Hook the muffs up and start engine again. Pull the flush hose and if water is shooting out your engine is fine and so is the impeller. You have a blockage in the tell tale line/hole.

[spinkick63]

Seems I forgot to post my pictures... mighta helped. Prior to pulling the lower unit the first time, tell-tale was working fine.

lower_unit1.jpg lower_unit2.jpg

[spinkick63]

Ok, follow-up... I aspirated the forward tube I was asking about and sent the fiber op camera in. I was mildly perplexed to see the vertical tube ends at a horizontal tube that goes forward... with no opening on the front of the lower unit. Here's the water tube (sorry it is blurry):

lower_unit3.jpg

Here's the front of the lower unit:

lower_unit4.jpg lower_unit5.jpg

I'm suspecting that the opening has been crushed closed by a previous owner that could take care of his stuff (long list of such things).

Can anyone with an HPDI lower unit like this please take a picture for me? I need confirmation before I go drilling a hole where there isn't supposed to be one. I tried Google, but couldn't a good pic of this.

For BOATS... I hooked up water line to flush port and plugged the water tube (lower unit was off). It took a few seconds for the engine to fill up but the tell-tale was peeing as expected.

Thanks

[McQuaig]

The small hole at very front tip of LU is only for speedometer, nothing at all to do with water pressure gauge or tell-tale (they get their pressure from a line off of engine block). Since analogue speedo gauges are very innacurate, many owners don't use them, so they either cap off the tube under the cowling than connects to the line going to speedometer, or plug this hole in the front of LU so it doesn't spew water around inside cowling.
The pic of yours looks like previous owner may have sloppily gooped it up with JB Weld or something to close it off maybe?

[spinkick63]

or drove it into rocks...

thanks for the input

[spinkick63]

Replaced o-rings, spacer, drive shaft collar, and spacer. All works as expected. Who woulda thunk?

[ssmithboats]

those things are terrible to get stopped up with debris an such skeeter quit putting speedos on boats because it was such a problem.