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This is one of those "for whatever it's worth" postings.
For the past two seasons I've struggled with a battery problem. If I leave the master 1-2-all-off switch on for a prolonged period of time, my batteries will draw all the way down, even on an afternoon trip. Not a big deal, the radio is direct wired so I have that on, but I can switch the rest off without even noticing it.
This finally became a bigger issue two months ago when on a night sail (running lights obviously) the battery was gone by the time we got back to the mouth of the harbor. Would not have guessed it would completely disappear in two hours, but there we were. (Fun sailing upwind into your slip in the dark in a tight Chicago harbor.)
Called in the electrician and after checking everything, he determined the alternator was done. It was drawing off the battery when the switch was on, and when the engine was running, pumping way too much juice back into the batteries. Bad news on both ends.
Suspected fail of the diodes (?) but whatever it was, it was a relatively easy fix that I should have addressed earlier. I *think* the failure is tied to a cross wiring incident that I hate to admit to. Dark locker, badly labeled leads, and I cross-wired the connections. Fried some wires and I'm sure this didn't help the alternator.
Lesson learned - label your leads in a painfully obvious way! And if you have something odd happening (like you can't leave the battery switch on) address it! It is not going to heal itself.
For the past two seasons I've struggled with a battery problem. If I leave the master 1-2-all-off switch on for a prolonged period of time, my batteries will draw all the way down, even on an afternoon trip. Not a big deal, the radio is direct wired so I have that on, but I can switch the rest off without even noticing it.
This finally became a bigger issue two months ago when on a night sail (running lights obviously) the battery was gone by the time we got back to the mouth of the harbor. Would not have guessed it would completely disappear in two hours, but there we were. (Fun sailing upwind into your slip in the dark in a tight Chicago harbor.)
Called in the electrician and after checking everything, he determined the alternator was done. It was drawing off the battery when the switch was on, and when the engine was running, pumping way too much juice back into the batteries. Bad news on both ends.
Suspected fail of the diodes (?) but whatever it was, it was a relatively easy fix that I should have addressed earlier. I *think* the failure is tied to a cross wiring incident that I hate to admit to. Dark locker, badly labeled leads, and I cross-wired the connections. Fried some wires and I'm sure this didn't help the alternator.
Lesson learned - label your leads in a painfully obvious way! And if you have something odd happening (like you can't leave the battery switch on) address it! It is not going to heal itself.
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