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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Alternator Problem
Posted By: Vic Roy In Response To: Re: Alternator Problem (John F.)
Date: Sunday, 14 November 2004, at 8:08 p.m.
John - yep, that is correct, go straight from the output lug on the alternator to the + side of the battery. #10 wire is enough. Do not go thru a switch, since if you cut the switch off with the alternator energized you will burn up the voltage regulater diode bridge in the alternator, or if you go thru the switch, be aware and don't cut the switch with the engine running. Some battery switches have an alternator cut-out feature and that is OK if hooked up correctly. My advice is to go straight from the alternator output lug to the battery. The single wire system is near fool proof vs. all the hoops you have to jump thru to make the alternators excite at idle start-up. On my current pair, the port excites at about 1000 rpm and on the stb. I have to run it up to about 1800 to get it going. My Garmin 2010C plotter has a digital voltmeter built in as one of the zillion functions, and I keep it displayed on one of the pages and you want to see it settle out at 13.8 volts or so after running a while, and that shows your batteries and regulators are working correctly. The output voltage from the alternators will run as high as 14.5 when the batteries are low, but should settle out at 13.6-13.8 when things are charged up. At rest, after not being charged for a few hours, a fully charged battery should read about 12.5.
UV
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