Opinions on alternator

Batteries, Generators, Solar, Wind and Electronics
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dgrodey
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:50 am

Opinions on alternator

Post by dgrodey »

OK, a little background before we get to the meat of the subject:
I recently bought this bought this boat in the beginning of November. It's been re-powered with a Yanmar 4JH5E. The hour meter shows 577 hours on it, but I've never seen it advance or seen the tachometer work. The engine logs say the alternator was replaced with a Hitachi unit with no tach signal wire in 2018 (as well as the oil changed then also). I changed the oil. The engine has been converted to a serpentine belt system, which is fine, but the back of the alternator looks like this:
20221119_105713[1].jpg
20221119_105713[1].jpg (1.83 MiB) Viewed 2464 times
My guess is they wanted the 80 amp alternator and wound up getting one without the "P" lead, so they just went without hooking up the orange signal wire. I kind of like the idea of having a working tach and hour meter, so I'm left with a couple of options.
I can:
1- Bring my soldering kit with me on the next trip and install a "P" lead on one of the legs of the stator windings.
2- Procure an alternator with an actual "P" lead already installed, and save the the old one as a spare.

I'm leaning towards #2, but I'm interested in hearing about any thoughts or experience any of you may have.

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