alternator/charging question
 

a friend of mine pulled his motors over the winter and when he put them back in his voltmeter is on 10-11 volts when running.It showed 14 volts the first few minutes.What would cause this?When the boat was running he flipped the disconnects to off and the motors shut down.I think that would be the same as pulling a terminal off the battery and the motor should keep running if the alt. is putting out volts,though I could be wrong.trying to help him out.he has 1 gauge for both alternators and all the wiring seems fine.thanks for any help, Mike.

Re: alternator/charging question
 

anyone?

Re: alternator/charging question
 

The alternator should be putting out almost 14 volts. Sounds like a bad alternator or wiring.
Check the wiring first, especially since he just pulled the motor. Check the harness plug connector too.
On the alternator:
The large red or orange wire on the alternator is connected to the battery and should be hot all the time.
The 2 smaller wires on the plug are the excitation and sensor wires. The excitation should read voltage when the key is on, the sensor should be hot all the time.
If this checks out, replace the alternator.
BTW, never flip the battery on/off switch while running. That can fry an alternator too.

Re: alternator/charging question
 

Thanks for the info...he didn't hit the disconnect until after this started and we won't do that again...hopefully it is the alt. so it was fried already...would the volts still be at 14 if only 1 of the alts. is fried?

Re: alternator/charging question
 

he had one tested and it checked good...if one was good would the volts still be 14 of do both have to be working...also,the one he had tested had power to it on all 3 wires...need more info.

Re: alternator/charging question
 

volts should be 13.8 to about 14.4 output at orange wire on both alt seperate systems when testing

port on batt one
stb on batt two