KAD300 premature belt failure

ozzie

ozzie

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I had my engine serviced in February with all new belts although the engineer said they were fine. Went out Saturday, opened the throttle to get on the plane, a nasty screeching sound and a warning alarm. Shut the engine down, dropped the anchor and opened the engine bay to be confronted by a mass of shredded rubber and wire from the belts. MDL Torquay came to the rescue and got us back to our berth. I cleaned up the mess and found that the supercharger belt had gone and taken out the drive belt and turned the alternator belt inside out.i fitted spare belts, started her up and she sounded fine.... until I spotted some small oil splatters on the hull. It would appear that a bit of wire from the belt had got caught around the back of the crankshaft pulley and damaged an oil seal. Two questions. The belt had been fitted by an approved Volvo engineer and had only lasted 4 months and 20 hours. Do I have a warranty claim? Secondly, is the repacement oil seal a big job? I have an engineer coming out tomorrow, really want it sorted!
 
Not sure I understand what has happened but belts don't break like that for no reason so something else is most likely going on.
For example does the supercharger turn as it should or maybe the pulleys have given up?
 
Yes they were genuine belts. I checked all the pulleys and tensioners and everything spun freely and true. Prior to the belt going my wife said she could here a slight squeak when she was sat by the engine cover. I was there when the engineer fitted the belts, but I am not sure if he torqued them up. When I fitted my spare belts I ran the engine at fast idle for 20 minutes and watched the belts, and again everything was spinning as it should
 
ozzie said:
Yes they were genuine belts. I checked all the pulleys and tensioners and everything spun freely and true. Prior to the belt going my wife said she could here a slight squeak when she was sat by the engine cover. I was there when the engineer fitted the belts, but I am not sure if he torqued them up. When I fitted my spare belts I ran the engine at fast idle for 20 minutes and watched the belts, and again everything was spinning as it should
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If something got stuck like the pulleys or something else there would be a short squeak followed with shredded belts. Maybe there would be some burn marks on whatever stopped spinning if that was what happened.
Did your fast idle include the compressor engaging?
 
I had kad 300s in my first boat and belt failure was the bane of my life.

I was not on the forums then, but now believe it was slight rust and dirt on the tensioners and pullys that made it abrasive.

The solution I understand is careful cleaning , including use of acetone.

The belt issue was so bad I was glad to see the back of the boat and would never again touch a kad 300.

I had one fail in poor weather and had 3 hrs on one engine at 7 kts followed.

Not sure you can blame the dealer , but you do need someone who takes the issue seriously and will investigate and resolve. No dealer ever took my issue seriously so it was unresolved. We had one or two belt failures a season.
 
I had KAD 300 on my last (which was my first boat ) -
The V profile of the pulleys doesnot quite co respond to theV profile of belts .
This may be so they bed in with use -resulting in side wall friction for enhanced grip .=== scuffing and the resultant " black dust disease " .
The pulleys are all base steel and rust ==== more friction === more dust !
What I did was use emery paper to smooth and then waxoil to cure the rust .It worked no more dust or belt failures
I had one snapp Its no fun in chop in a hot E room changing them .
I,ll never go back to VP engine -All the ancillaries (bits attached ro rhe block ) like these pulleys seemed to me to rust
 
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