Serpentine Belt and other questions

[lynn]

Hi all,

Sorry for the long post. We just purchased a 1999 3000scr that was in excellent condition. Of course the Surveyor found some things that needed to be taken care of before we took ownership.
The port engine wasn't running very well, the carb was rebuilt and the electric choke was replaced.
Both alternators were removed, one was repaired and the other rebuilt. They were reinstalled and new serpentine belts were installed.
The raw water pump on the port engine was leaking so they replaced the raw pump assembly.
The automatic float switch in the aft bilge was not operational. The mechanic said it was a fuse. Two fuses were replaced.
NOW here are my questions/comments.
This weekend we had a captain/surveyor come aboard for a few lessons in docking and anchoring, he checked out a few things for us and now we question if any of this work was actually done.


We took ownership of the boat and the $2500 dollars of "repair" work was paid for buy the previous owner.
The float switch in the aft bilge is not working, it works if you use the switch at the helm but the "auto" part in the float still isn't working. How could that have been a fuse? It always worked from the helm switch. Former owner paid $138 for two fuses and labor.
I'm a little confused by the copy of the invoice we received as it says they replaced the Starboard engine raw water pump, the survey says the port engine had the leaky water pump. I will be calling the marina where the work was done later today. Either way the former owner paid over $698 to replace that pump.
It's hard to tell if the work on either alternator was done or even necessary. The belts look fairly new, HOWEVER, while we were out with the captain we threw a serpentine belt on the port engine and came back to the marina with one engine. Any idea why we would throw a serpentine belt if it was new and the alternator was just repaired/rebuilt? The invoice doesn't say which was repaired or rebuilt. cost to previous owner $ 1,225
The former owner paid $1,225 for the alternator repair/rebuild and new belts.
The carburetor rebuild and electric choke was $$650.

We are quite a distance now from the Marina that did the work and we will have the mechanic at our marina take a look at the list of things that were supposedly taken care of while he is replacing the serpentine belt.

Once I have a better idea of what may not have actually been done I think I may contact the previous owner and let him know that if he actually paid for those things he may have a beef with his broker/marina. He was getting out of the boating life and no longer has any ties with marina. I am thinking that he got screwed. And we didn't get what we expected either.

Luckily the alarm went off on the engine and we shut things down right away. Hopefully no damage was done and we just need the belt replaced.

I guess I've learned many things about how my next boat will be purchased. I think our broker will not be on the short list either.

[mmwjr]

It's hard for anyone here to say if the work was done without seeing the boat.

Does the equipment that was suppose to be replaced look new?

Bilge pump will have a separate fuse for the auto float. The float may be bad itself.

If the belt was loose it can come off. If the belt was over tightened I have seen the raw water pump bracket bend and the misalignement can cause the belt to come off.

[shrew]

I would ask them whether the bill for the waterpump was to replace the "Impellor" on the pump, or to replace the entire pump. My guess is that is an impellor replacement you were invoiced for. I couldn't say whether they ran the boat or verified the pump wasn't leaking before or after the job.

As for the belt, I would guess that a misaligned pulley might throw a belt, but again that is also pure speculation. Maybe the alternator wasn't tightened down properly.

It's difficult to test a float switch. There are 2 circuits. One circuit is to the helm switch, then other is to the float switch. Both circuits share a common ground. Flipping the helm switch verifies the pump is working and the helm circuit is working, along with the ground. However the only way to test the float switch would be to either manually remove it and manually actuate it, or flood the bilge.

You should be able to bring the invoice and the boat to the yard and ask them about these points directly.

[lynn]

The invoice says "replace raw water pump assembly" stbd engine. The problem is that the survey said the port engine raw water pump was leaking. We have ask the service people at our new marina to take a look and make sure the port pump isn't still leaking and to see if the other pump actually looks new. Maybe they changed the right one and it's just wrong on the invoice.
The serpentine best was fairly shredded so I imagine that something wasn't lined up right. I'm hoping it doesn't have anything to do with a leaky port water pump.
It stinks to have to pay to have another belt put on two weeks after they did the work.
Looks like I will be taking a ride to Mystic to talk about these things.

[Kevlar7r]

If they did replace the water pump assembly, they generally don't come with the pulley, which means they would have to remove it from the old one and install it on the new.



It is very easy to bend the pulley and make it impossible to ever align again (ask me how I know... Lol). Take a 4' level, and place it against the face of the pulley and another pulley. If its out of alignment, you'll be able to see.



About the only other thing that will throw a belt would be heavily overtightening it. For the record, it only takes like 2 fingers of pressure on that 5/16" wrench to get the proper tension. Again, ask me how I know and how many belts I went through. :-)



I'm nauseated by the price that was paid for r&r an alternator and replace a belt. That is such easy work. But, hey, I'm super cheap and like doing it myself.