Dead Short or Miss,
 

I thought I had this problem licked. Race one at the Worlds last year I fried an alternator, second race developed a miss but also had fuel filter problems so I didn't concentrate on the miss. Over the Winter I notice that the nut holding the battery wire at the starter, using the large ceramic looking fuse had welded half way off against the block so I removed the fuse thinking that what may have fried my alternator. Now to the problem. Starts fine, rev to 2000rpm to energize the single wire alternator, charges fine, get on plan and with ever wave I hit I get a miss and the volt meter drops to 0 then back to 13 or so. Checked grounds, battery wire its as if you turn the key off for a split second, its not the plug either. Could their be some kind of short in the new alternator, could the module or the Thunderbolt ignition do this? Any help would be appreciated.

Eddie

Considering that the voltmeter shows 0 when you hit a wave, i would assume that that you get an intermittent open in the main powersupply from the battery. The connection, fuse and relay down at the starter sounds like a good place to look

Thanks for your replay, I removed the fuse, someone else mention a bad tack, so I plan to remove it off the coil, the volt meter drops like something pulling on it, it will fluxuate down thin back up. I wonder if the builtin regulator would do something like that.

Well, it sounds either like a loose red wire under the dash at the ignition switch or your float level is to high in your carb if this is a carberated model.

John :D

Has carb, but why would that make my volt meter go down, it is directly related, will run on the hose tonight. it will do it on the trailer but not as often.

not a carb problem here. the volt meter is telling the story. I would check the igntion switches, wires etc at the back of the dash. Have someone jiggle around in there and watch the voltmeter. Sounds like you are intermittently losing power to the ign coil, which is fed power from the ign switch. also, check the lanyards wiring and lanyard itself.

Check the big plug at the engine, slightly spread all the pins with a small screwdriver and make sure there is no corrosion in any of the sockets.

I agree as stated that I believe its wiring related. At the dash. I have seen where the float level is set to high and everytime the boat come off a wave the engine would cut out like someone turned the key off. I re adjusted the carb for the gent on the poker run and his problem went away.

John

Float level looks good, unhooked tack still had problem, one thing I did notice last night on the hose is that the problem would not develope until the engine got warm, ran 30 minutes at Idle+120 degrees and volt meter stayed steady 14 volts, cranked engine up to 2500 and volt meter started bouncing once it got to 150-180 degrees, will disconnect the alternator tonight, and get someone to watch meter while checking dash connections.

Just ran engine on hose, same problem, disconnect single wire to alternator, volt meter setting steady at just below 12 volts on battery voltage, seems to be the problem would you agree, will try to get an new alternator tomorrow.