Hi there

I have just purchased a boat with a 1994 70hp Evinrude. The motor starts and runs beautifully hot/cold and sounds good at idle.
However on the maiden outing after warming up the motor for a minute or two and leaving the beach an alarm sounded with a "beep beep beep beep" So I shut the motor down and waited a min. I started it again and drove for 1-2 mins slowly before the same alarm sounded, Again I shut it down for a minute or two then started and went back to the beach.

I bought the boat home and put some earmuffs on it and ran it up on the trailer, it took about 2 mins before the beeping started again and as soon as it did I shut it down, All the while the tell tale is shooting a good stream of water and it is by no means hot.

I believe this motor was VRO but the oil tank has been disconnected along with the line going to the vro pump and it is running a 50:1 premix with quicksilver premium oil. There is a cream wire and another wire by the harness going to the vro pump that has been disconnected, if i connect them with the key on I get a solid beep so Im guessing the beep I have is an overheat warning

Could this be the thermostat or am I more looking at a faulty Temp sensor?

I guess my next things to check :

Faulty Temp sensor (hopefully) Does anyone know if the sensor is testable by say putting it a jug of hot water to make it go from a open/closed circuit or measure resistance or something? ?
Impeller needs replacing (which is possible as although the telltale is strong it takes 15 seconds or so to start pumping) Is there any rules of thumb to check this ? Don't mind replacing it but would rather not
Faulty Thermo (heres hoping haha)

The water coming from the tell tale is lukewarm but im wondering if the thermostat isnt opening can the water in the head still be too hot, though the temp of the telltale is fine?


Thanks in advance

the VRO being disconnected & the alarm still sounding start looking at the thermal heat sensor , being an open circuit sensor possibly the thermal disc inside playing up as the heat increases the circuit should close at +/- 84 to 87 degrees & your closing a little to early  , a heat sensor gun should give you some idea what temp your motor running at then compare that heat on the gun to  temp sensor   closing circuit   temp     

bare in mind a faulty thermostat can cause this too your motor having poppet valves , if there is insufficient water pressure & the thermostat not opening , this means that it is not allowing cold water in while the poppet valves are still closed due to insufficient water pressure , poppet valves only open up if the rpm is increased as you throttle up to  WOT [WIDE OPEN THROTTLE ]

by the way model is a E70TLERV if that helps

**Just went out and took the cowl off again and found the VRO Loom exactly as you describe it Karl.

I have circled the suspected loom plug that has the color wires in it as you describe. It appears the brown/tan wire is still plugged in, looks like the loom enters the VRO pump on the carb side of the pump ?

To test can I earth the brown wire to the block and see if that triggers the alarm ? then disconnecting it will hopefully fix the beep beep beep?

fishermans friend wrote: the plug you have put yellow box around is the vro plug. Disconnect that plug and the beep beep will go away. The vro should have a little cap put over it on the oil inlet if you can. The vro pump will function no problem with a 50:1 premix with the wiring unplugged. The warning horn is working so make sure the temperature switch is connected back up (looks like it is in the photo above). The overheat side of the warning system will still work. The wires you connected are the ones that would have gone to the oil tank, by connecting them together you have completed the circuit and effectively tested the warning horn so no harm done just leave them as you found them.  thanks Karl

Thank you Sir! You are a true scholar and a gentleman!

Cheers