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Monsoon eating belt


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I recently became a Malibu owner (1998 sportster). This is my first boat so bare with me :).

The engine compartment has quite a bit of dust from the belt in it. And the back of the belt is a little frayed like it has been rubbing on something.

Oddly though I can't seem to find what it is rubbing on. And looking at the bolts on the water pump and crank it looks like all the rubbing is coming from one direction. In other words there is only black dust on one side of the bolts.

I must be missing something fairly obvious. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Salem

Edited by eyekode
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Take a look at your pulleys & make sure the back end of one isn't rusted. When I got my current boat the alternator pulley was quite rusted & was spreading a find rubber mist over everything. New alloy pulley & it's been great for 6 years.

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make sure the alternator pulley is lined up stright or what your talking about will happen, i have fixed this a lot of times for other people who change the belt and dont remember to pull the alternator even and they end up with black dust and a skinny belt......

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When I looked again it is clear that at some time the pulleys were rusty. Most are quite smooth now where the belt has polished them. Not sure if their current condition is acceptable.

As for alternator alignment I am not sure. It looks ok roughly but I don't know a great way to check. On a bandsaw you can lay a straight edge against the wheels to make sure they are coplaner. All the pulleys are a little different on the monsoon so that trick doesn't work. Any suggestions?

Thanks again!

PS: I vacuumed out all the dust I could and we ran her all day today. Too late now but I will check for more dust in the morning.

Salem

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get a straight edge and line up the alternator pully with the crank pully, pays to have two people so one can line up and pull belt and other do up the two bolts , just use a ruler

Edited by phataz5
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they may look straight bet i bet they are not , this happens a lot when people go change there belt or alternator works lose then people pull the alternator to get the belt tight and then do the bolts up ,run the engine and find black dust on the inside of the engine cover ,over the top of engine ,in bilge .

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I took a much closer look today and I do think the alternator is not aligned. It looked to be a little crooked. I hope the bracket isn't bent...

I will take it off as soon as I can get out there during daylight hours.

Thanks again for all the help!

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I'm guessing the bracket is not bent. Check to make sure that the alternator, etc bracket is on the correct side of the "arm", or that you dont need or have spacer installed correctly. The previous owner of my boat had the alternator attached to the wrong side of the bracket. Only put it off an 1/8 of an inch or so, but enough to make the belt squeek especially at startup.

If you can find an online drawing of the set up, that should help assure you have all attached as it's supposed to be.

Steve B.

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This may have nothing to do with your issue... I had a 1998 Sunsetter with a Monsoon and there was a recall for the alternator mount. You might want to run your engine serial number by Indmar.

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I'm guessing the bracket is not bent. Check to make sure that the alternator, etc bracket is on the correct side of the "arm", or that you dont need or have spacer installed correctly. The previous owner of my boat had the alternator attached to the wrong side of the bracket. Only put it off an 1/8 of an inch or so, but enough to make the belt squeek especially at startup.

If you can find an online drawing of the set up, that should help assure you have all attached as it's supposed to be.

Steve B.

Steve, I have struggled to find an accurate drawing of how the alternator is attached. If anyone else has a monsoon 320 and can post a picture it would be greatly appreciated! Specifically if there are any spacers used on the bolts.

I did find this picture but it looks like his belt is turned inside out!?

http://www.sitefile.org/showimage/9/indmar.htm

Thanks!

Salem

Edited by eyekode
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I spent about an hour taking it apart and trying different spacers to the alternator bolts. The alternator definitely seems too far back and it is being pulled crooked. But adding spacers (washers) didn't really help. It almost seems like the bracket needs spacers behind it? Not sure. I will take the bracket off next time I get my boat (next weekend :() just to make sure it is not bent.

Salem

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well I think I have figured it out. I am completely missing the front bracket! I only have the back bracket that bolts directly to the engine. My guess is the previous owner had the bracket break and simply removed it!

I will call bakes to see if they can get a replacement.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Salem

Edited by eyekode
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I had an issue with the 96 Four Winns I ran before I got my first BU. I fought the alternator belt for 3 years. Replacing belts, checking alignment, resurfacing pulleys, replacing the alternator itself. Until I bought ALL new brackets, pulley, spacers and built the whole circuit from scratch I couldn't get it to go away. It was a TOTAL nightmare.

I hope for your sake that missing that one bracket didn't slightly bend everything else.

Good luck.

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