Alternator on JP3

[flatplane8]

I finally got round to adding an alternator to Misterton's engine.

The original engine may have had a dynamo fitted, as I was able to use the old mounting to fit the new alternator, but the current engine had never had one fitted, so there were no pulleys to use. The alternator itself is a 90 amp insulated return one from Ebay (£115).

 

The first attempts used 'nut-link' belting, sort of like a chain. This would've worked with two 'V'' pulleys, but wasn;t very effective on our setup. The substitution of a rubber belt fixed this and it was charging the batteries at 60 amps.

 

Top tip - I needed some heavy cable to connect the alternator to the battery bank and it was cheaper to buy a heavy duty jump lead set from Halfords than to buy the cable separately (£40 vs. £60).

[blodger]

Is the engine solid mounted? I was worried about mounting a second alt on a Lister not on the engine because of its jumping around. I could do with making a better job than I did and more akin to your setup

[flatplane8]

Is the engine solid mounted? I was worried about mounting a second alt on a Lister not on the engine because of its jumping around. I could do with making a better job than I did and more akin to your setup

 

Yes, the engine is solidly mounted. I had to bolt the steel floorplate that the alternator is sitting on to the engine room frames though, as it was a bit loose beforehand. All seems pretty wobble free now.

[kebilli]

Hi, this is nothing to do with alternators, it's about your Boat "Misterton", we have just passed it on the Thames at Staines on our Narrowboat "The Lady of Avenel". The reason I am sending this is because your boat used to be moored up at Stainforth near Doncaster in S. Yorks near our marina The Thorne Cruising Club. She is looking good, you have made a good job of her. Have you seen "Daybreak" in Staines around the back of the little island, it is also from Hull but it has been fully restored with all the sails and rigging. Keith.

[flatplane8]

Hi, this is nothing to do with alternators, it's about your Boat "Misterton", we have just passed it on the Thames at Staines on our Narrowboat "The Lady of Avenel". The reason I am sending this is because your boat used to be moored up at Stainforth near Doncaster in S. Yorks near our marina The Thorne Cruising Club. She is looking good, you have made a good job of her. Have you seen "Daybreak" in Staines around the back of the little island, it is also from Hull but it has been fully restored with all the sails and rigging. Keith.

Hi Keith,

 

Thanks! its been a lot of work (and still a bit more to do) but its much better than it was when we bought it. We have tried to keep her looking like a working barge, with the exception of the wheelhouse. The original one was rotten and we went for a slightly bigger one for practicalities sake.

 

You've come a long way from Stainforth, quite a trip! We see 'Daybreak' quite frequently and wave to them, but have not met yet, I didn't realise they moored so close by.

 

Simon

[casper ghost]

Hi. I fitted an alternator to my Ruston in a simliar way. Belt straight off the flywheel with the alternator mounted to the base plate. Far easier than making a bracket off the engine. I didn't put a groove in the flywheel though, there is enough belt contact that it doesn't move about. It's been on over a year now and works fine and with a ratio of 7.5 to 1 it charges well too.

Casp'

[flatplane8]

Hi. I fitted an alternator to my Ruston in a simliar way. Belt straight off the flywheel with the alternator mounted to the base plate. Far easier than making a bracket off the engine. I didn't put a groove in the flywheel though, there is enough belt contact that it doesn't move about. It's been on over a year now and works fine and with a ratio of 7.5 to 1 it charges well too.

Casp'

 

There is no groove, what happened was I used 'nut-link' belting originally, which would work fine on two 'V' pulleys. But as this type of belting is made of riveted fibre links, the rivets just stripped all the paint of the flywheel where they were (not...) gripping. So its all flat, just bare metal where the paint has come off.

[ditchcrawler]

There is no groove, what happened was I used 'nut-link' belting originally, which would work fine on two 'V' pulleys. But as this type of belting is made of riveted fibre links, the rivets just stripped all the paint of the flywheel where they were (not...) gripping. So its all flat, just bare metal where the paint has come off.

At least you can see how true it runs

[casper ghost]

There is no groove, - the rivets just stripped all the paint of the flywheel where they were (not...) gripping. So its all flat, just bare metal where the paint has come off.

People keep telling me that I need to sand the paint off my flywheel so it's shiney metal, i've painted it green!

Casp'