Amount of water coming out of jet when greasing?

[Fish Slapper]

How much water should come out when a jet unit (outboard) is greased on a regular basis? I have a 200 Merc and this is my 3rd outboard jet in 8 years, normally I only have to put in 1 squirt of grease (on all of them) to get grease coming out. I ran the engine last weekend and when I got home I had to pump in 5-7 squirts before I got grease and there was alot of water that came out. I went out again this weekend and the same thing happened, there was alot of water in there, water actually dripped down out of the shoe when I applied the first pump of grease I had to pump 7-8 pumps to get all the water out, I can only assume that the pump bearing seal must be shot? anyone else had this problem? Did you fix it yourself?

[Captain Starbuck]

Fish Slapper,

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you my experiences. I also have a Merc 200/140 jet. Mine's a '96. After a day's use, or sometimes two days use if I forget, only 2 pumps of grease is required to purge the line. I rarely get more than a few drops of water out and definately nothing out of the shoe itself.

Good luck with that.

[Boat Doc']

You should replace the seals, any thing over 2-3 pumps is an indication a problem is developing

[wetaline]

My non-expert opinion is its time to replace the seals. Mine got to the point (225hp) where a lot of water came out, then a sprun a leak (spraying water) out of the drain hole. Had the seals replaced and now it uses no grease.. or 1 pump if I run it a lot.

Note- as long as they're pulling your pump apart to do the seals you might as well have them shim/sharpen/replace your liner as they'll be pulling it apart anyways and the labor will pretty much be the same (except for the time to sharpen the impeller)

[wetaline]

Also - all those pumps (lower units) are made by the same company so anyone thats authorized to work on them can - doesn't necessarily have to be the authorized dealer for the manufacturer of your engine.