Maintenance! Honda BF150

[Sharphooks]

HONDA BF150 IMPELLER CHANGE-OUT--- Business has been slow this week so this morning I decided to pull the lower unit off my Honda BF150 and take a look at the impeller. It's a 2007 model, has 435 hours of 100% salt-water use on it, and the water stream coming from the tell-tale is like what a cow does when it sees a flat rock----it was the long hours without a lower-unit pull that had my attention, not the strength of the tell-tale.

So here's how it went down: the lower unit didn't come off very easily. In fact it wouldn't come off. The dowels in the front and aft of the lower unit housing were corroded and stuck inside the dowel recesses. I finally had to resort to multiple strategically placed wooden wedges to get the lower unit to give it up and drop free....

Owners take heed: don't necessarily draw false conclusions from a strong tell-tale that all is well and good down in the lower unit just because your engine is peeing and properly cooling....using wedges to pry apart a motor isn't in my Honda repair manual... what is in the manual is change the impeller every 300 hours.

Here's a picture of the impeller with 400+ hours on it and the new impeller that took its place. I also add a picture of the dowel pin in the lower unit that secures the impeller housing: there are two of them and both were severely oxidized and I had to once again resort to a wedge device to get the impeller housing to finally pop off. Salt water; gotta love it....

BTW---The main-shaft "key" (that key that hooks the impeller to the shaft) was rusted and showed signs of wear.


So there you have it: maintenance, maintenance, maintenance....

 

[Sculpin]

Good thread Sharp Hooks. My BF225 is a bit stubborn to get the lower unit off as well (tight tolerances more than corrosion). I just replaced mine as well mid summer. I replaced the thermastats as well. I have had a couple of salty dogs tell me to change all the cooling components at the same time so the system is "fresh" so to speak.

 

[Sharphooks]

Hey Sculpin--so I gotta ask: what's the trick to getting lower units on and off those big Hondas under those circumstances (corrosion and/or tight tolerances)??

It wasn't pretty hammering wooden wedges in there to get the lower unit off. Then when putting it back on, it just didn't want to seat properly. I was solo so it was real awkward (plus I have back stuff going on so that didn't help) I finally lowered the motor onto a wood block, made sure everything was lined up (dowles and shift shaft etc) then using a truck jack, came up from the bottom on the cavitation plate. I finally got her seated, but figured if a real mechanic saw me do what I was doing, he'd whack me in the head with a 2 x 4.

 

[Sculpin]

Two man job for sure. There was some wood involved but just to tap around the fin etc.(not very hard) to get her to go. Putting it back on is not as difficult and mine sucks back up nicely with just the bolts. I've had it off twice now since I've owned it. I can imagine how difficult it was by yourself. I would grab a buddy next time.

 

[Sharphooks]

Ya, my guy flaked on me today so I went solo. Didn't want to use the bolts to nudge it into place---the stern seated but not the front: I worried about stripping threads without the holes lined up properly. Next time I'll wait for reinforcements.

This weekend I focus on my 9.9 kicker: pulling six inches of oil pick-up tube out of the oil sump that sheared off on the bottom rim of the dip-stick tube when sucking oil out last May...it's been sloshing around in there all summer. Like a freaking pea beneath my mattress every time I'm out on the water ....

Some times ya just gotta love boat ownership...

 

[Sculpin]

I hear you on the lining up thing. We made sure the front and back where evenly spaced before sucking it up tight. I've been doing the carb draining routine on my 9.9 from your other thread and it sure makes a difference big time.

 

[Islandgirl]

Hey Sharphooks

Where did you buy your honda manual from?
I was going to get my better half to change it on my engine...it has never been done.
Is it possible to scan and email the page from the shop manual to me?

 

[Sharphooks]

Hi, IG---


If you don't mind, I'd prefer not to send scanned pages of the manual as there are some copyright issues etc....'nuff said.

The following link would be best if you want to get serious about do-it-yourself maintenance
(and presuming you have a BF130/BF150):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-BF135...anuals_Literature&vxp=mtr&hash=item3cbcd955bb




I'll tell you this-- My $ 115 investment for that manual has easily saved me a minimum of $600 on labor charges and I've only had the book two months. It walked me through change-outs on Thermostats, Sparkplugs (not as easy as it sounds on these big Hondas) and low and high pressure fuel filters. The impeller I did yesterday was pretty simple:

1)) raise the motor
2)) disconnect speed sensor (you can see it in the picture above)
3)) remove lower unit bolts + trimtab (see it above) AND REMOVE THE BOLT IN THE TRIM-TAB RECESS) = 7 BOLTS TOTAL
4)) Pull off the lower unit, return engine to full down position
5)) LOWER UNIT: SECURE IN A VISE WITH WOOD BLOCKS Remove four bolts holding impeller housing / lift off the drive shaft
6)) REPLACE: Impeller / "O" RING in Impeller Housing / gasket beneath steel plate (impeller cover) beneath impeller housing / stainless woodruff key

FOR REASONABLY PRICE PARTS, REFER TO:

http://www.boats.net/parts/search/Honda/Outboard Engine/parts.html

7)) getting the blades of the new impeller into the housing can be tricky. I have found that lubricating them with grease or vaseline helps: I slip the impeller onto the shaft, secure it to the woodruf key, then lower the housing down on top of it while the blades are bent and held in place with a string or ones fingers. The trick is not to damage the blades with the stainless housing of the impeller housing when forcing them into the pump body.
8)) replace bolts in impeller housing (DON'T OVER-TIGHTEN)
9)) Grease: a)) splines of drive shaft b)) splines of shift-shaft c)) grommet of water tube d)) dowel pins of impeller housing and lower unit rim (not in manual but that's what I do because they oxidize)
10)) raise engine, fit drive shaft up into the engine making sure the water tube pipe fits into water tube grommet of pump and making sure the shift-shaft splines seat properly in shift-shaft rod
11)) bolt everything back up the way you found it, re-attach speed sensor tube

A marina will charge you $ 250 - 300 for labor + parts. A do it yourself: a few hours of labor and about $ 40 - 50 in parts (unless you replace the entire impeller housing, then you're looking at $ 125 for parts

good luck!

 

[highlfyn]

just to let everone know you can order the same manual from honda for $85 , i just got mine yesterday.