four winns nightmare

I will try to make this brief, but here is what happened with my 2002 FOUR WINNS HORIZON with VOLVO PENTA inboard motor
- i had it winterized by a local marina
- in the spring, it leaked oil immediately and the marina took full responsibility for a cracked block
- they took it to the dealer (who sold me the boat) and it was determined I needed a new motor
- they installed a new motor (cost the guy who winterized it 9,000 bucks!)
- a month later (half a summer at the cottage) i finally got the boat back
- it worked for about four hours and then started sputtering and stalling. I called the dealer who said pour some ethanol cleaner into the gas and drive it.
- i drove it for an hour or so and it died. This time when I tried to start it there was a loud grinding noise. I had to be towed in.
- the dealer came and got the boat and took it to the shop. Turns out they RE-USED the old STARTER BOLTS and it broke off. They said it was their fault but had to pull the motor again to fix it. Another two weeks with no boat.
- I called and asked "where's my boat, the summer's almost over and the kids are not happy about not having a boat". Here's where it gets fun.
- the dealer says "the MAIN WIRING HARNESS broke when we pulled the motor the second time. We have to find a new one (FOUR WINNS is out of business, so we have to dig up a used one) and it will be your responsibility to pay for it "because it would have broken anyway, it was wound too tight". Oh, and the shipping from michigan to Ontario was 250 bucks. So, with that and four hours labor, they want me to give them 1200 bucks to get my boat back.

Now obviously I don't plan to pay for it, but here's my question. Could the wiring harness have been broken by STARTER BOLT Failure? If so, then it's clearly their fault. If not, then it's still their fault, but maybe not as clearly.
See, I told you it was a nightmare.

Paul

Re: four winns nightmare

If the wiring harness broke its because they didn't disconnect everything before they pulled the engine.

Its very possible that they would have problems finding a wiring harness for a 2002 boat but its not because Four Winns is out of business because they aren't.
http://www.fourwinns.com/

Re: four winns nightmare

I would have to guess that the wiring harness that "broke" was probably for the engine, not the boat.
Which would make it a Volvo part, not 4winns. I know for a fact that Volvo is in Canada.

Without full Model and Serial numbers for the engine, and knowing exactly what broke and where, you aren't going to get much help.

Re: four winns nightmare

waterdogh2o said:

Could the wiring harness have been broken by STARTER BOLT Failure? If so, then it's clearly their fault. If not, then it's still their fault, but maybe not as clearly.
See, I told you it was a nightmare.

Paul

Click to expand...

Nope.
Procedure to pull the starter is as follows;
1. Disconnect the battery.
2. Disconnect the cables/wires to the starter.
3. Unbolt the starter from the engine.

It sounds like they have a dipstick working on this engine.
Starter bolts, if treated right, are infinitely re-usable. There are starter bolts on engines which are decades old that have been removed, or can be removed and re-used to put a new starter in. If these relatively young bolts failed, 3 thoughts come to mind;

1. Over torqued
2. Cross threaded
3. Really corroded (should have been replaced right off the bat)

As far as the main wiring harness breaking, it sounds like said dipstick didn't disconnect the harness before the engine was pulled from the boat. OOPS...

This harness would have also been disconnected and re-installed when the engine was pulled out the first time. If the harness was "wound to tight", it should have been rectified during the first engine pull.

Bear in mind this whole starter/wiring issue is probably going to be secondary to the running condition you had when the boat was running.

This is just my 2?... Someone else may see things from a different perspective.