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Yesterday, coming back from a long trolling trip my engine alarm went off and the govenor came on. I suspect that perhaps I was low on oil. A check of the reserve tank indicated that there was probably just under a 1/4 of a tank. I added some oil to be safe. Started the boat and reved up to 18000 RPM and again the same thing.
After pulling the engine cover I noticed the oil tank on the engine was low. I then unhooked the reserve tank, sifond off some oil and filled then engine's oil tank. Problem solved but I am currious if I need a new electric pump or could it be that the reseerve tank needs to be at least 1/2 a tank for the flow to work correctly? I am hoping for an easy fix but I suspect I am going to hear differently.
the remote tank will cause the alarm to sound when it the level gets low. The way to tell if the remote pump is working or not is to listen for it to come on when you turn the ignition key to the "on" position. Fill the tank and alarm should go away.
The first thing I would check is the little inline filter and the line running to it from the reserve tank. I think the sensor under the cowling is what you heard, not the reservoir sensor. The pump may be delivering oil, but not enough to keep up with demand.
The filter should be located right on the back on the reservoir itself, at least it is on my the '98.
I'd be surprised if with 1/4 of a reserve tank, the pump lost suction. The same thing happened to me and it was the reserve tank pump. A friend of mine had this happen and it was the small strainer between the reserve tank and the engine.
For the next step, I'd suggest first replacing the in-line strainer between the reserve tank and the engine tank. Then, almost empty the engine tank, turn the key and see if it refills from the reserve. If not, it's probably the reserve tank pump...$65 when I replaced mine a few years ago. Hope this helps.
First lets get the nomenclature correct. The tank on the engine is the primary tank and the tank in the boat is the remote tank. You have a switch on the back of the engine close to the primary tank. Following the procedure in your operators manual does the primary tank fill with the switch engaged. If so, the pump down at the remote tank and the oil filter at the remote tank is probably okay. You may have a problem with the sensor in the primary tank. This sensor tells the ecu to pulse the remote feed tank pump until it reaches level. When toggling the switch listen to see if you can hear the pump running down at the remote tank, if you can then I would suspect the inline filter to be plugged, if not, the pump could be bad or the ECU can be bad. You can check to see if you have any voltage down at the pump, if you do and the pump is not running , the pump is probably bad.
All the previous reccomendations are right on target.
If the remote tank is low I would consider emptying it and cleaning it out. I had some sludge build up and it kept clogging the inline filter (strainer).
Secondly, check your trim indicator. If it is not working correctly (reads up all the time) the ECU will stop oil flow from the remote tank to the primary tank. I had this happen as well it is easy to fix.
1996 Yamaha Salt II - oil pump failure? 
