Does the impeller spin if engine belt breaks?
 

First ride since dislocating my shoulder last August and shoulder surgery blah blah. And the damn belt on my '02 Malibu VLX breaks! Dammit!! Well, I guess I should replace it more often than once every 4 years...at least I got my run in.

Anywho, after it broke I pulled out the remnants and just drove back to the dock, like a 1 minute drive, no overheating or anything, BUT I just want to make sure I don't need to replace the impeller.

The impeller seems to be driven off the main crank pulley, in which case maybe it still had water passing by it. At the same time, the engine water pump is driven by the belt, and so was obviously not turning, but I don't know if that extra draw is needed to pull water past the impeller to avoid it burning up.

Probably ran about 4 or 5 minutes total with no belt.

Thanks guys,
Danny

The Impeller is a lift pump in a simple form. All it does is supply water to the waterpump to be circulated through the motor. I would suspect that the impeller is fine as it was still sucking water and was lubricated. As long as the engine didn't overheat I would suspect no damage done other than the belt.

Indmar raw water pumps couple directly to the crank pulley so it is fine. The circulation pump does run off the belt so it will overheat if you run it longer than a 10-15 minutes. Actually, neither pump will be hurt from not turning, but the motor will overheat from lack of cooling water. Just replace the belt and you should be good to go.

Cool, thanks guys, that's what I thought based on just looking at the physical arrangement, but I wanted to be sure. I've got a crap ton of other stuff to do, so I'll just sack up and do it all at once. Owning a boat sucks sometimes!!! Break Out Another Thousand for shizzle.

Yes the impellor turns if the alt belt is broken. Your batteries, however, will not be charging and after a few starts you would need to hook them up to a battery charger for an overnight recharge. I always carry a few alt belts.