I do all of my own boat maintenance. Recently I have had a problem that is just making me crazy. My power steering belt keeps tearing up and destroying itself. I have changed 3 of them now and it is very time consuming as I have to unbolt the engine tilt motor and assy to get to the belts.
When I install the new belt I check it over and over again for any misalignment, tightness or rubbing on anything at all in the engine bay. The only hint to what possibly may be wrong is that in neutral I can run it up to 5,000 rpm and nothing seems out of place. But under power at full speed is when it fails seemingly in a right turn configuration. I can tell the instant the belt shreds as the power steering goes out and it is like trying to drive a immovable force under high speed.
In neutral I can fully rotate the steering wheel from left to right however in the last 10% of full right operation the power steering telegraphs through to the steering wheel some extra load on it that isn't there when going fully left.
Any ideas? The nearest Grady dealer is about a 5 hour tow for me and I just don't want to have to tow it down there, leave it, and return to get it.
When I install the new belt I check it over and over again for any misalignment, tightness or rubbing on anything at all in the engine bay. The only hint to what possibly may be wrong is that in neutral I can run it up to 5,000 rpm and nothing seems out of place. But under power at full speed is when it fails seemingly in a right turn configuration. I can tell the instant the belt shreds as the power steering goes out and it is like trying to drive a immovable force under high speed.
In neutral I can fully rotate the steering wheel from left to right however in the last 10% of full right operation the power steering telegraphs through to the steering wheel some extra load on it that isn't there when going fully left.
Any ideas? The nearest Grady dealer is about a 5 hour tow for me and I just don't want to have to tow it down there, leave it, and return to get it.