Alternator story

I thought I'd post this because one of my CCF friends that knows more about electricity than I thinks this is kind of nuts.

The alternator on our Barracuda is a 1 wire Delco type marine alternator. It had been in inventory quite some time before we bought it and put it on the engine. When running the boat the amp gauge was barely discharging, and after about 6 hours of run time the battery went dead.

I took the alternator to NAPA and they wouldn't test it because they couldn't figure out what it was. Another auto parts place was able to test it and confirmed it wasn't putting out. After running around town for a few hours and having most people refer to this guy Kaz that rebuilds starters and alternators, I took it to him. He's a nice and very enthusiastic guy that knew immediately what was wrong with it. He said when 1 wire alternators sit too long, they lose their magnetism and need to be excited. He drilled a hole in the back of the alternator and installed a short wire. He told me to touch this wire to the battery wire after the engine is started and it would excite the alternator and it would charge. Sure enough, we started the boat up, it wasn't charging, I touched the exciter wire to the battery wire, heard something mechanical in the alternator and it started charging. He said I should only have to do this at the 1st start of each year, then I should tape the exposed part of the wire up. Anyone ever hear of doing this?

Paul Waters are you reading this?!

Gary S wrote: I think Paul is at Lake Clinton this weekend Chris

Gary have you picked up the SS yet???

If so why are you not there also

Bruce,

Good story! I have a similar Alt/Starter rebuild shop here in Schenectady, NY that has a bunch of old experienced guys (nobody under 50+) that can figure out stuff like that. Not the shop for new computer stuff, but do have a valuable service for boats like ours.

Todd