Omc alternator charging to high

[boater184]

My 89 Omc 5.8 Cobra in my bayliner Cierra, last fall at layup my dealer pointed out that it still had the original alternator in it, so I said go ahead and change it. he put in a Sierra brand alternator. Now this spring when I fired it up, I noticed the alternator is charging at almost 16 volts on the in dash voltmeter. the dealer came down to the slip to check it out and found that the alternator was actually putting out 16 volts, so he ordered another figuring the first one was bad. the second alternator, also a Sierra, does the same thing. It never did this with the old original alternator, it always stayed around the 13 to 14 volt range. what is going on ? and will this higher voltage damage anything if left this way ??

 

[Scott Danforth]

yes, an output that high will boil your battery. have the dealer fix the issue that they created by changing out a perfectly good alternator for 2 bad ones.

for what its worth, your local alternator shop could have rebuilt your prior alternator for low $

 

[bruceb58]

Sounds like they didn't wire it up correctly. For example, they may have left the sense wire disconnected.

 

[Rich Novak]

Sounds like they didn't wire it up correctly. For example, they may have left the sense wire disconnected.

Check the ground wire, I left mine off by mistake, and it charged to high , to back on everything OK.

 

[boater184]

thanks. the aggravating part is that the alternator was my call to do, it seemed to make sense being 26 years old. I wondered about the ground on the block since I hosed down the engine last fall then put it up for the winter. I'll check that tomorrow.