Wow. Pulled the lower unit, took the pump housing apart and there were chunks of impeller stuck in the "out" flow area. Pulled the wear plate seal thing and had to pick out impeller pieces for 5 minutes to get in and check it out.
It's '66 mercury 9.8 hp. Took about an hour to get from "I should do this now" to having the impeller collar off. The last part took the most figgering and jiggering to slide off. Was happy I didn't have to remove the drive shaft.
Heading to TC Outboard in Shakopee for the impeller. Apparently there were two or three ID sizes of impellers for this era, need the parts to match them up.
So far, I've been able to keep finding the pin that holds the collar to the drive shaft. My biggest fear is losing little damn things like that. Guessing after that, the next PITA will be lining the spine shank on the drive shaft when I put it back together.... and making sure all the connections realign.
Will run a weed eater line through the upper part of the water system to make sure there aren't any clogs. Flushed some crud out of the flush hole, but everything seems to be running clear. Just need some pressure to push the water.
I know I'm getting to the point I'll have to come into this century with some of these things, but damned if old sh!t that works well isn't somehow a whole lot more interesting.
Heading to the deer shack this weekend... hoping the '56 IH 360 starts right up... cool old tractor, but needs a shat ton of hydraulic work. Oh well, it's just hoses, right?