A Little Advice

[TJRiver]

Before our annual trip to the lake, I had the local shop replace the impeller and housing on my 97 PRE2150WB. I had owned the boat three years and I felt the impeller replacement was long overdue. Picked her up, drove to the lake, put in and everything worked! (a bit unusual) Piled the family and dogs in for a sunset ride before docking up. Ran great till I start hearing a flapping noise. Pull up the engine cover and the sepentine belt is starting to shred and is moving forward on all of the pulleys. Tried to idle back and it threw the belt. Got a tow and off to the repair shop.

The local repair shop (well respected) told me the belt appeared to have been re-installed incorrectly, the pulley system was out of alignment and the alternator bracket was cracked. In three years of ownership I never had any problem with the pulley system. Seems to me the local repair guy owes me some $.

What do yah think?

[Jason B]

If you have a good relationship with the shop they SHOULD help ya out, maybe a break for labor or something. If you play it nice you may get lucky.
Probably not though. If they don't care about your business you'd pretty much lose out. The burden of proof falls on you to prove they did something wrong. You'd have to have the one mechanic go to court and testify it was assembled incorrectly......It would not be worth your time or money, especially considering you're likely to lose anyhow.

Your best bet is to go to Autozone and get the correct belt then have a friend who has a modest amount of mechanical aptitude put it on for you. It is VERY,VERY easy to do with hand tools even the most green do-it-yourselfer will have. This is no more than a 2 minute (or 1/4 beer) project for anyone whos done it before.

Of course the above assumes you only need a simple belt replacement with no other work. The cracked bracket could probably be replaced pretty easy if it needs to be changed at all.

[hoopykat]

It's very important when re-installing these serpentine belts that the pulleys in the system are not out of alignment, since that can cause the edge of the belt riding up on the edge of the pulley guide, and putting undue stress and wear on the belt. Plus, when tightening the belt 'system', there should not be too much or too little tension on the belt; too little and it can bounce itself off a pulley, and too tight puts undue stress on the pulley/bearing assemblies. When properly tensioned, the belt should not be able to be pressed down more than say half an inch. Same principles apply to automotive serpentine belts. Too tight a belt and not aligned right is a perfect recipe for damaged bearings or flying belts.

-Mike

[TeamAllen]

Sorry to hear you had a problem on your outing with your family.

Did they replace the belt or just the impeller only?

[skyski_tige]

For my '97 2150i... the belt was very sensitive. The alignment had to be perfect.

When was the last time you changed the belt? I needed to change mine every other season. The belt might have been worn.

Is the pulley on the housing plastic? If it is, you should probably look into replacing the pulley with a metal part. My plastic pulley broke into pieces and the boat was out of commission for a week.

I did notice my alternator bracket was showing rust / wear and could have probably cracked in the next season or so.

As a safety measure - I would highly recommend having atleast one spare belt and the tools to install on the boat at all times.

[CP3]

I would have the shop fix all the problems they created. It sounds like the wrongly installed belt caused all the other problems.....

[TJRiver]

I had the boat fixed at the lake so as not to ruin a week's vacation. The local repair guy slipped my job in the same day and had the job done in 4 hours!

The plastic (WTF?) pulley on the water pump had a chip broken out of the back side. The local repair person said that was probably not the cause of the belt tossing, but I figured why go 1/2 way. I had the water pump pulley replaced with a metal one. The use of plastic in a a stress area such as a water pump pulley struck me as idiotic. Shame on you Mercury Marine!

I do check the belt regularly and there did not appear to be any problem with it when we put in the first time at the lake. A spare belt and tools sound like a great idea. I wanted to stay and watch how it was done, but the Mrs. insisted on going wine tasting while the work was done......

I have a direct drive, so the engine access is really easy. I will have to figure out what tools and parts to bring next time.

[TJRiver]

Thanxs for all the input!!

[TeamAllen]

I'm going to have to check on that plastic pulley. I never noticed nor ahad any problems with it.

Thanks for the heads up.

[TJRiver]

Mike, any relation to the Allen Caddy/Olds folks in MV?

[TeamAllen]

Mike, any relation to the Allen Caddy/Olds folks in MV?

I wish. No, I drive buy it everyday, and my previous GMC Suburban came from there.

I think it's funny they now sell Hyundai. Cadillac and Hyundai. Kind of opposite ends of the spectrum.