Alternator, - check!

The view off the back of the ferry as we leave Guana on the way to Marsh Harbor

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I've been playing the alternator follies. The first alternator went out at 3 am on last wednesday morning. The second one went out before midnight on the same day.

Once I got to the Bahamas, acquiring what I needed to replace the alternator has been less than easy.

Today, I took my second trip on a ferry into Marsh Harbor and went to the NAPA. Before I went, I contacted my alternator guy (the one who rebuilt the first one poorly) and got him to cross reference my alternator with the closest one from NAPA. Thusly I was able to march in with the part number I needed.

They didn't have the exact one I needed, but they had one that was close and so I hopped the ferry back over to Guana Cay.

After installing the new alternator (with much sweat and effort), it didn't work. I called my guy in the US and asked him why. He said it wasn't a 'self exciting' alternator. It seems that alternators have to be told to 'engage' by some mechanism other than the belt turning them (that seems like enough to me). The one I was supposed to get would know to engage on it's own (self exciting), while the one I got uses a series of wires from the car to do this.

Luckily, I understand electronics and so after Bill told me what had to happen for it to work I got out all my electronics stuff and built a wiring harness which I connect one end to the two probes on the alternator and the other end to a switched 12v connection. Now when I turn on the key to the boat - it sends a message to the alternator telling it to 'alternate'. Go figure.

Glad to have the boat back as it should be.

We may sail over to Hope Town tomorrow. I'll take photos. It's a photogenic place.