Replacing Drive belt - mercruiser 3.0/lx

[dwaynelau]

I've found some great posts on here that show removing the spacer to replace the drive belt which I've done.

Only problem is I seem to have a second smaller pulley on the top (I assume for power steering even though that doesn't exist) which results in not enough room between the center of the motor mount to slip the belt in.

Do I need to remove that center pulley?

tks,

 

[Fishermark]

Re: Replacing Drive belt - mercruiser 3.0/lx

Bottom line - if you cannot squeeze the belt in after removing the spacer block, then you will need to move / remove whatever you can to get the belt on. I'm not sure what extra pulley you are referring to however. Is it on the crank pulley?

 

[Don S]

Re: Replacing Drive belt - mercruiser 3.0/lx

Sounds like the front mount was installed too close to the vibration dampner causing your problem.
What you are going to have to do so this will not happen next time is, remove the drive, jack up the front of the engine, remove the front mount, fill the lag bolt holes with dowel rods, change your belt.
Now the fun part.
Put everything back together and make sure there is room between the pulley and mount for the belt. Redrill and install the lag bolts. Re-align the engine with an alignment bar and re-install drive.

Might want to make sure none of your pulleys are rusty, that is what normally takes out the belts.

 

[dwaynelau]

Re: Replacing Drive belt - mercruiser 3.0/lx

Thanks,

Got it after a bit. As fishermark said, remove whatever the heck is in the way. Had to loosen the four bolts on the front of the upper pulley for the water pump and get it angled slightly to be able to slip the belt in. Not an easy on the water job but doable.

thanks for the replies.