www.iFourWinns.com

On the last boat ride of the holiday weekend, we're cruising along and the alarm goes off. I shut the boat down and see that the temp gauge is elevated, but not too bad. Enough to sound the alarm so I could shut it down, so that was good. Lift the engine cover and find the serpentine belt lying in the bottom of the bilge and then nut on one of the idler pulleys is GONE. Can't find it in the bilge, but it has to be in there somewhere. Bearing and what look like a snap ring are pulled out of the housing a bit, pulley had worked its way out toward the bow so that it was completely out of alignment. Easy to see why the belt derailed.

Sorry for the blurry first pic from the bow looking to stern: pulley in question is the one on the furthest left and lowest. You can see there is no shiny nut holding it on:



Second pic from above. You can see how far out that pulley has come on the left. It should be in line with the shiny one right above it so that you should be unable to see the pulley at all:



Can anyone help me out in finding a schematic for this engine to tell me exactly what that pulley is? Like I said, it looks to be an idler pulley since I can account for the alternator, raw water pump, and power steering pump on other pulleys. Not having a lot of luck with Google searches thus far.

Thanks!

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

The little headway I'm making in the parts diagram searches is making me think this is actually the seawater pump pulley. Anyone have a take on that?

I've been set to do an impeller change that I just haven't gotten around to doing. To my knowledge, an impeller failure wouldn't cause the nut to come off of this pulley. Any thoughts on that?

In looking at this very hot engine in a boat bobbing up and down in rough water on the main lake, I took a quick look and didn't think the pulley looked to be connected to any component. BUT, I didn't take a closer look after it cooled down since the goal changed to just getting towed in and getting home before midnight last night. One thing I DID see was that what looked like a bearing and a snap ring of some kind were just hanging on the shaft the pulley mounts to. Looked like everything was intact EXCEPT for that nut on the outside of the pulley.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Looks like the raw-water pump pulley to me too. I don't think it's an impeller failure, just an un-related failure to the same component. Get with Villiage or Merc on that, should still be under warranty (if you got the extended).

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Walt B
"Debt-Charged"
Black '07 H210SS
6.2L Bravo One turning a 21P HIFive
Wakeboard Tower with Perfect Pass Stargazer version
Missouri River; Kansas City, Mo.

I agree. Looks like the nut came off, then the belt came off, then the seawater pump stopped pumping, then the alarm .

I don't know what's supposed to retain that nut, but that seems to be the source of the problem. How did you get back?

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Wondering how/why the nut came off, but hoping it was just loose and there is no seawater pump damage. Gonna do the impeller now next time I get down to do the repair and hopefully that is all it is.

Luckily my parents were also down and were coved out a few miles down the lake. Got someone to tow me over to a dock to tie up and called them. Dad towed me in. Good reason to ALWAYS have a cell phone on a boat.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Hi there, Sorry to hear about your engine troubles.

I just wanted to say that the pulley in your photo that you are talking about on the very lower left side down in the bilge area is going to be your sea water pump pulley, (Impeller Housing)

But just so that you are aware, That pulley should be just pressed on, and there should be no nut holding that pulley on.

Here's a link so that it will help give you an ideal of what it looks like, And also so that you can see there is no nut there holding that pulley on.

See number 18 in the link below.
http://www.mercruiserparts.com/Show_Pic ... p+Assembly

If you still have any warranty left with Mercruiser, Then you might want to try to get your boat into a Mercruiser dealer and have them take a look at it just to make sure everything is in working order.

To me if that pulley is sticking out that far, then you may have other problems going on, Like maybe a water pump bracket is installed wrong or maybe it broken, Something along those lines.

PS, If your not sure if you still have any warranty left with Mercruiser, Then you could either post or PM me your engine serial number, and I might be able to let you know if you have any warranty time left.

Either way, I wish you good luck with it all.

Thanks BoatTech. I am still under my extended warranty, but I'm not sure if this part is covered by the extended warranty.

I'm a little confused, though. If the pulley pressed on, would I have to remove the entire pump housing with the pulley still attached to it in order to change the impeller housing when performing routine maintenance?

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

So, any chance that the pulley could be pressed back on or is it done once it comes off?

Even if it could be pressed back on, I'm concerned with what might have caused it to come off in the first place.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Good point. I'd be curious if something lodged in the housing forcing the impeller to stop. If so the belt would keep trying to turn the pulley and possibly spinning it off the shaft... You would thing the rubber impeller would be demolished first though..

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H210SS 6.2
F150 Platinum

If the pulley is still in good condition, then yes you can pull it off and inspect it really good, then just press it back on without any problems.

[/quote]Good point. I'd be curious if something lodged in the housing forcing the impeller to stop. If so the belt would keep trying to turn the pulley and possibly spinning it off the shaft... You would thing the rubber impeller would be demolished first though..[/quote]I know what your saying and anything is possible, And that's scary to think about that happening

But so far for me anyways I have seen the impeller lock up three times so far, And normally when the impeller locks up and freezes inside the brass housing the belt will just spin around the pulley and have a very loud squeal to it, and you can smell the burnt rubber of the belt.

Paul, You have an update for us?

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H210SS 6.2
F150 Platinum

No update. I'm busy this weekend with a golf tourney, so I'm probably going to head back down to my lake house on the weekend of the 24th to take the seawater pump assembly off and inspect everything and see what the impeller and insides look like. There was no burning smell and no markings on the belt like it had been running on a frozen pulley, though. It would be nice if something would show itself as to why the pulley did this and can result in an easy fix.

Still haven't even checked to see if the extended warranty covers a seawater pump housing.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Update: As I was grudgingly expecting, the seawater pump is considered a "maintenance" item and it is therefore NOT covered under my extended warranty.

Going to my place at the lake tonight and will pull the part for closer inspection and post some pics. Maybe the guys at my local marine shop here in KC can help me out as to what happened to this thing. It is $400-ish new to replace the entire assembly, so that probably ends my boating season if it needs replacing. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of the little parts that holds the pump driveshaft in place is all that is wrong and for less than $20 I can be back in business.

I'll update when I know something.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)