Axius Boats, Water Pumps Pulleys, and Burned Exhaust Hoses and Flappers


B

BeechBoy

New member
We have a first year, 2008 Axius boat which has been pretty good, except the throw away Merc sea water pumps.

We have had two of these pumps fail do to shaft and or bearing failures. The last one actually had the bearings work their way forward out of the pump, causing the serpentine belt to come off the pulley.

In 2009, as part of a Merc upgrade to the system, they put on new, smaller diameter pulleys on the alternators to create more juice when running at slower speeds. Instead of putting a shorter serpentine belt, the elected to put a larger pulley on the water pump, which slows the pump down making less pressure, pushing less water thru the entire system.

Last fall, we had to replace all 4 of our rubber exhaust hoses leading down to the out-drive, along with the back flow flapper valves that were burnt out as well. Now some may say you ran the motor without cooling water do to the pump failure. That is difficult to do as when the Merc system senses a loss of pressure it immediately bring the motor back to idle and then you shut it down.

We could not come up with a good reason why all the hoses and flapper failed. Two motors, same problem? So back to the Merc updated larger water pump pulleys which slow down the water pump.

Mine are 7" diameter, the normal ones are just over 5". Is the larger pulleys causing the exhaust hoses to burn out do to lack of cooling water?

Anyone else having this problem?

If I had my way I would switch to the smaller pulleys, try to find the right size shorter serpentine belt, and hope to eliminate future problems with the exhaust before they burn out again.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
I had the same issue with AXIUS. I had a 2008 34PC and had nothing but problems. Mine was the first AXIUS boat. Problems from day one. Tom Carr from Mercury was at my boat so many times for diagnosis the reimbursed me money for fuel. My pulleys and belts were changed. I never had an issue with hoses though. I couldn't take it anymore last year. After five years, two weeks before sandy I traded it in. Good luck.
 
Sorry to hear of your problems with your first year Axius boat, as mine is.

Besides the first glitch, which the pulley upgrade ended, I have had very few issues with it. Merc did their upgrades, but all and all can't complain about the Axius performance.

I am just thinking that changing the water pump pulley to a slower turning one, was not a good idea on their end. Like a bean counter found out it was cheaper to change the pulley, than buy a new serpentine belt....

What kind of a boat do you have now?
 
This is my third Formula and I do believe there is no better built boat in this class. We had new mercury technology so you have to expect issues. I also believe it was released too early. Todays AXIUS motors are wonderful. My kids grew so much in the 5 years I had the 34 I had to go bigger and now diesels are necessary if you travel and add that extra weight. I'm burning 12 gph at 25kts. At 23K lbs that pretty good. I was 35gph at that speed with my 34 with 8.1's. What do you burn?
 
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