Was fishing the Cowlitz last weekend.Sucked up a couple rocks.No big deal.Raised the motor to make sure everything was kosher.Thats when we saw a shiny new bolt in the pump.Ran the kicker to get us back to the launch.Got home,pulled the impeller off and saw that 3 of the 4 bolts that hold the pump on had worked out and 2 of those were missing.
The long one in front was the only thing left holding the pump on.
Have another friend who's pump did the same thing this spring.His pump fell completely off though.
One motor was less than a year old the other barely over that.These were both 80 at the pump motors with factory stainless impellers.There was no lock tight or anything on the bolts.I heard rumors of one other doing this.
You might want to check your Mercs.Dont know if it affects just the 80s or others or those with stainless impellers or what.
Curious if any of you have had or heard of the same problem.If so I would appreciate hearing about it.