loco
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2010
- Messages
- 154
Hi all,
Just went down the boat and fired up the engine so it's not sat for too long over winter. Looking at the voltage indicators, they stayed static around 12v, and weren't the normal 13/14V when charging. Not good news.
Taking a look online, a new alternator is ?250 which is crazy money. Since my engine is a chevy V8 - can I use an automotive alternator perhaps instead of an official penta part? Something around half the above price would be reasonable I guess.
Failing that, are the alternators serviceable? Exploded diagrams don't look so complex, so I was thinking I could dismatle the thing and give it a decent clean - see if I can see what's going on.
It's strange as everything was working perfectly last time I used the boat, and just sitting around for maybe 3 weeks seems to have caused this. Some douche left the battery switch on, but the engine cranked fine when starting so I don't think the battery is at fault - and anyway, with the enigne running, it should still show ~13.5V no matter what the condition of the battery.
There was no other load on the charging system apart from the running engine.
Any other tips for troubleshooting the charging system? I suppose I could put a multimeter directly on the output of the alternator and see what that gives...
As always, many thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Just went down the boat and fired up the engine so it's not sat for too long over winter. Looking at the voltage indicators, they stayed static around 12v, and weren't the normal 13/14V when charging. Not good news.
Taking a look online, a new alternator is ?250 which is crazy money. Since my engine is a chevy V8 - can I use an automotive alternator perhaps instead of an official penta part? Something around half the above price would be reasonable I guess.
Failing that, are the alternators serviceable? Exploded diagrams don't look so complex, so I was thinking I could dismatle the thing and give it a decent clean - see if I can see what's going on.
It's strange as everything was working perfectly last time I used the boat, and just sitting around for maybe 3 weeks seems to have caused this. Some douche left the battery switch on, but the engine cranked fine when starting so I don't think the battery is at fault - and anyway, with the enigne running, it should still show ~13.5V no matter what the condition of the battery.
There was no other load on the charging system apart from the running engine.
Any other tips for troubleshooting the charging system? I suppose I could put a multimeter directly on the output of the alternator and see what that gives...
As always, many thanks in advance for any help you can offer!