I am trying to get some info from people that are having trouble with the serpentine belts in their Mercruiser 350 MAG MPI engine. I was cleaning my boat yesterday and noticed that the belt is ripping. Luckily I wasn't on the water when it tore. I have already lost one belt on the Delta and was stranded. The dealer told me there was a recall on one of the pulleys and it was replaced. They also made sure that the pulleys were aligned. I have heard that many people are having trouble with this same issue. What are you hearing from the dealers and Mercury Marine and is there a solution to this problem other than changing it every 50 hours? <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/71953.jpg" alt="">

I had the same recall and they aligned my pullys. The problem I had was the belt was too loose and it started slipping. I thought it was my impeller and replaced the impeller. My belt as a result of the slipage freyed this weekend and I had to be plulled in. MY lesson learned was to make sure the belt is tight and will carry a spare belt from now on. I got a replacement belt at NAPA in brentwood for 40 bucks. I think the Mercury one is over 80 bucks. <BR>

Chris, do you have a part number for that belt? It would be nice to carry a spare considering how easy it is to change. <BR> <BR>I have a Tige 20v with the same engine and haven't had any belt problems and the boat now has over 320 hours on it.

Yeah I don't think I would have had any problems if I would have had the belt adjusted the proper way to begin with. <BR>What I did was to take the belt in hand to the parts store. In my case at a NAPA he punched in the number from my original belt and there system had a cross over number for it. My original belt has the part number of 57-863876-5 <BR>and the NAPA belt number is 060882. I hope that helps

Chris, thanks for the post. I too have this same engine and will be adding a spare belt to the boat's tool box.

Is there a range of engine serial numbers that are affected by this? I have the same engine, and haven't had any problems yet. <BR> <BR>Just wondering. <BR> <BR>Trash <BR>

The serial #'s on Mercnet are 0M310022-0M312139. <BR>Of course we had a customer with the problem after the last serial # and one in the range without ever a problem.You can get a Mercruiser mechanic to call up bulletins SMC-02-09 &amp; SMC-03-04

Mark, <BR> <BR>You need to have your Merc mechanic shim the lower alternator bracket. The new smaller pulley on the Merc alternators was designed to generate 14+ volts even at idle. When the new system was introduced, it was found that they had lost tolerance with regard to pulley alignment. Hence, the need for the shim. Merc will take care of it under your Merc warranty. New belt included!

Matt, what year boat is this pulley for? I have a 2001 Tige 21V, it seems to only hit about 13.6 wide open with no load. The problem is that it has a Faria gauge that wants 13.6 just to activiate the hour meter. This would be great if I could 14 at idle and have my hour meter acting right. I have it close now, but not right.

Thanks for all the helpful information. I will make sure the dealer checks this out. The only problem is that my dealer can't take the boat until the end of July.