Re: Mercury Mark 6 Tale Tale?

[Buccaneer]

I dug my parts "Mark 6" out of buckets and looked at the water pump system today.
Having no tale tale was not one of Mercury’s better ideas 🙁
Pump discharge up to Pilot Cap on bottom of crankcase >
Into bottom of crankcase >
Out top of crankcase>
Into water jacket around cylinders>
Out bottom of cylinder jug>
Into and out of bottom of crankcase>
Dumps down into forward side of Pilot tube in exhaust stream,
and exits underwater

On the back side of the lower unit, 7-1/2" below the lower engine cowling,
are the four little weep holes grouped together.
Interesting, that when the engine is rotated 180 degrees, a 1/4" hole
in the pilot tube lines up with the four little weep holes.
I have no idea why it’s designed this way. The pilot tube only goes into
the crankcase one way, so it’s not backwards.

I put the Merc back in the test tank, fired it up, nothing out of the
weep holes, rotated engine 180 degrees, still nothing, engine
cylinders get hot right away…… guess the lower unit is coming
back off for starters 🙁
Perhaps I can test the pump in a bucket of water with a drill, but
not sure it will work with this model.

Has anyone ever rigged a tale tale up on a Mark 6? There are some
tiny core plugs in the cylinder jug on the cooling system that might
be possible to tap into for a tale tale.
Thoughts??????
Thanks, Buccanneer

Prepare to be boarded!