While at anchor I started the engine to charge the batteries(I have two banks-one start and 3 house batteries)I noticed the engine battery was overcharging and no charge was going to the house bank. The tach was reading ok. I shut down the engine and restarted it and everything was ok. The next day upon starting I had the same problem. I started and stopped the engine several times until both batteries were charging ok but somewhere in the process the tach quit reading. All the other gauges were reading ok. Any thoughts on what might be wrong? I have a heavy duty balmar alternator with a zap stop. The engine is a Westerbeke 27. Thanks in advance.
Larry
CD 33
lmace@gt.com
Charging problems
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Mark Yashinsky
Re: Charging problems
What are specifics about the whole charging system and the tach setup. is the balmar a dual output or how do you separate (if at all) the charging of the two banks??? regulator??? Does the tach get driven off teh alternator??? How do you know that one bank is not getting charged and the other was over charged (amp meter?)??? Problmes like this need details. the engine itself should have nothing to do w/ the problem.
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Larry M
additional information
Mark,
The balmar is a single output to a regulator. I think the tach is driven off the alternator because when I had a problem with no charging on either bank and no reading on the tach I ended up having to replace the regulator (or at least the mechanic did).
I could tell one bank was charging and the other not by watching the volt meter guage switch back and forth between no volts and 14+ which was also confirmed on the amp meter showing no charge and overcharge.
Larry
The balmar is a single output to a regulator. I think the tach is driven off the alternator because when I had a problem with no charging on either bank and no reading on the tach I ended up having to replace the regulator (or at least the mechanic did).
I could tell one bank was charging and the other not by watching the volt meter guage switch back and forth between no volts and 14+ which was also confirmed on the amp meter showing no charge and overcharge.
Larry
Mark Yashinsky wrote: What are specifics about the whole charging system and the tach setup. is the balmar a dual output or how do you separate (if at all) the charging of the two banks??? regulator??? Does the tach get driven off teh alternator??? How do you know that one bank is not getting charged and the other was over charged (amp meter?)??? Problmes like this need details. the engine itself should have nothing to do w/ the problem.
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Mark Yashinsky
Re: additional information
If the voltmeter on the breaker panel is not showing any volts, then the meter is not reading the battery either. When the engine is not running, the volt meter is used to get a ROUGH guestimate of teh battery state. If nothing w/ the engine running, then there is at least one open circuit somewhere. Dont know which boat you have, but the panel voltmeter goes thru a spring loaded on-off-on switch directly from the batteries (picked off from the master battery switch) to the meter, then to ground. If there is an open from the master switch (sounds like the alternator feeds the common (load) side of the master battery switch, which you use to determine which bank bank gets charged(???)) back to a battery bank, then nothing will flow TO the battery to charge it. Gte out your voltmeter, and w/o the engine running, the black voltmeter lead on the - ofhte battery, use the red to trace the path of the + from teh battery to the panel voltmeter. Also check tightness of all the connections. Almost sounds like something is loose, sometimes it works and.... These are simple circuits, so should be easy to follow. Watch for any metal shorting any power connections!!!