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First things first, the electrical system of my engine is the thing I understand the least and I am definitely new to this world so apologies if this makes little to no sense. Also, we've had this boat for two years and the engine has been running fine since an initial rebuild of a few things. Redoing electrical is next on the list so might as well learn now.
Here's the story. My battery was draining more rapidly than usual and not charging up as quickly. Running the engine did not charge it sufficiently either. I actually had another battery, but that didn't fix the issue either so after reading a lot on here and fiddling with things, I am guessing it's the alternator. Being new to this, I thought I'd take it to a shop and let someone who knows what they're doing have a look.
The shop had all the right things going for it...bad part of town, greeted by two dogs, etc. It was a strange experience though. Before asking what was wrong, the guy grabbed the alternator, made a phone call and shot back "575 bucks." I was confused. He told me he needed to rebuild it and that I wouldn't want a new one because this one was weird. He pointed out two wires, a red and black, coming out of the voltage regulator and asked me what they went to. I wasn't entirely sure though I thought they ran back to the battery switch. Long story, but he proceeded to chastise me for not knowing and tell me that he could rebuild an alternator 50 miles offshore and we should sell our boat.
We (probably made the mistake) of leaving the alternator with him to see what was wrong. He called back and said "stuff was wrong" but also that those wires were where someone had bypassed the voltage regulator. In the meantime I determined that the wires do indeed go back to the big orange battery switch.
Fortunately my father in law who knows his stuff will be here tomorrow, but I thought I'd get anyone's two cents about these "mystery wires" and whether or not anyone had seen a voltage regulator being bypassed before. Especially before I up and sell my boat
Here are some pictures...the wires at the top are the "mystery".
And here's a close up
Here's the story. My battery was draining more rapidly than usual and not charging up as quickly. Running the engine did not charge it sufficiently either. I actually had another battery, but that didn't fix the issue either so after reading a lot on here and fiddling with things, I am guessing it's the alternator. Being new to this, I thought I'd take it to a shop and let someone who knows what they're doing have a look.
The shop had all the right things going for it...bad part of town, greeted by two dogs, etc. It was a strange experience though. Before asking what was wrong, the guy grabbed the alternator, made a phone call and shot back "575 bucks." I was confused. He told me he needed to rebuild it and that I wouldn't want a new one because this one was weird. He pointed out two wires, a red and black, coming out of the voltage regulator and asked me what they went to. I wasn't entirely sure though I thought they ran back to the battery switch. Long story, but he proceeded to chastise me for not knowing and tell me that he could rebuild an alternator 50 miles offshore and we should sell our boat.
We (probably made the mistake) of leaving the alternator with him to see what was wrong. He called back and said "stuff was wrong" but also that those wires were where someone had bypassed the voltage regulator. In the meantime I determined that the wires do indeed go back to the big orange battery switch.
Fortunately my father in law who knows his stuff will be here tomorrow, but I thought I'd get anyone's two cents about these "mystery wires" and whether or not anyone had seen a voltage regulator being bypassed before. Especially before I up and sell my boat
Here are some pictures...the wires at the top are the "mystery".
And here's a close up
into the 16~18V range for charging. This did work as the higher voltage could carry a bit more amperage to the battery. The battery(s) can take the voltage better than the rest of the electrical stuff so regulating the "VOLTAGE" to keep it at 17V or less was done with the throttle and a volt meter. The temps of the battery needed to be watched and if the voltage got to high the alt could cook, electronics could cook and the batteries could be cooked too. The practice did work only if you watched all the time. The only advantage is you could charge a bit faster only if paying full attention by being the regulator yourself. The downside was you had to have everything that a high voltage danger was off line!!! A real PIA IMHO.
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