I looked through some old threads but didnt see anything with direct refernce.

Of the members who own motors that are belt driven, how many problems have you had with breaking or slipping? Im sure this has been discussed somewhere, but I couldn't find the thread.

Also, how difficult is it to change out the belt on these motors if you do have problems while on the water? Wouldn't you have to take the lower unit off, so would that rule out an on the water repair?

I've been running a longtail for a while now and love it's reliablilty but am close to making the change to a short shaft. Any help would be much appreciated, even if you are pointing me in the direction of a previous discussion.
Thanks.

Ive run my boat south of Franklin in those marshes and have hit many roots and stumps under the mud and belive me it sounds horrible. Just keep on driving and forget about it. It takes alot to break those belts, Unless you get a fluke one. It happens too.

I personally never changed a belt so the fastest quickest way IDK yet, But I could figure it out. If you are mechanically inclined you gonna be fine. There are manuals on all the MM manufactures sites so you can check those out to give you ideas of maintenance and repairs.

I broke a belt when my motor had 50 hours on it. I had just checked it out for slack and it was good and tight with no signs of wear or anything. I hit something at WOT and that was all she wrote.

It was a fluke, since then I've hit many more things much harder with no issues. It does sound bad sometimes but its not an issue and I have put over 300 more hours on it.

Slipping has never been a problem for me. I did have to shim the motor after about 150-200 hours to pull some slack out of the belt but it never slipped at anytime.

You can change the belt in the field but not in 6' of water. If you are in an area with a hard bottom it would be a snap, if not I would try to get it on the bank to work on it. You will have to pull the lower unit but thats not really hard at all. The hard part is getting the belt back over the bottom pulley, but once you learn the trick to that its not bad at all. This is very easy to do in the driveway .

Im reasonably sure that these belts are rated for 100 horsepower and i have never had any belt issues nor have i ever heard of anyone around here having one slip or break.

My GTR only has 8 hrs on it so I hope I dont break one soon. My buddy has over 300 hrs on his and broke a belt somewhere around the 250 hr range.

i changed out a belt on a gdsd halfdrunk in freezing temps. not hard at all. took longer to figure out the tension measuring tool than the change the belt.


yea, all mudmotors can break, but they are getting better and better.

we spent a hr trying to figure out the tension tool, then i just gave it 3/16"
or so deflection and bam, we rolled out!!!
like u said, next time would be done in a snap.

that was like 3 yrs ago and it's still rollin today.

Broke one belt at 14 hrs, said phuck that I'll take my chances with a different design and so far so good.

Everytime I drop a nut or bolt it's one made of stainless.

Lol. I'll try that next time.

At dis time I will insert foot in mouth.

Ran 211 hours on my original belt- hit stuff so hard I bent the trim bracket, took a chunk out of a prop, and once I even cracked a prop blade.

I've seen a belt changed out on the bank before.

Some of the new belts out are Kevlar- if you keep it tensioned its made to last.

Now that is a whacked prop.

Gary, what did you hit?

I broke a belt back in 07, hit some structure and also took a small (maybe 1/8") chunk out of my prop. This was with the old black colored pure rubber belts. MB started using Kevlar/Rubber belts rated at 140 hp around 06/07, and I put one on and it has been fine since with that motor and my new one.

Thanks for the help.

It sounds like the belts are built really tough but every once in a while they can snap at low hours. I appreciate all of the responses.