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Beta Marine 38HP Alternator! Arrrgh!


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2 minutes ago, markmiller said:

Hi all.....tested with meter and alternator was 9.6 idle and went up to 10.6....boat yard told me it should be 14 and said no good.Ive ordered a new one now so fingers crossed !

Was that across the start battery? If so, I'm a bit surprised the engine turned over to start ?

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1 hour ago, markmiller said:

Hi all.....tested with meter and alternator was 9.6 idle and went up to 10.6....boat yard told me it should be 14 and said no good.Ive ordered a new one now so fingers crossed !

If the battery was truly at 9.6V then I wouldn’t expect much more than 10.6V on charge as the alternator would have been working flat out which would depress the voltage. Effectively it’s in Bulk mode. After a while the voltage would slowly increase to 14.4V or thereabouts (dependant on the regulator). 

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14 hours ago, markmiller said:

That was from alternator...i put meter on output from alternator and minus to earth when idle 9.6 on alternator and 10.6 when running....starter battery read 12.2 idle and when reved up.....afraid im not much good when it comes to things like this

Did you check the leisure battery voltage?  If it’s the same as (or close to) what you measured on the back of the alternator then it’s possible that you have a VSR split charge arrangement and you won’t be putting any charge into the starter battery until you get the leisure batteries up. 

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Hi all....latest update !

Fitted new alternator that arrived today from beta who had all my engine details....still warning light wouldnt go out or the buzzer....took a cable from starter battery alternator to + on starter battery and alarm stopped.Thought maybe nothing wrong with the origonal alternator so put that back on.

A friend of mine who has more of a clue says its the splitter(and regulator i think, by sterling power, 90 amp split because i also have a battery for bow thruster....left boat running to charge up domestics and run boat for 2 hours.....when i went to restart the boat later no power to start !!! Hope its the splitter / regulator whats the problem.That wont be here till Saturday.Would this have now drained the starter battery?

Maybe its the alternator and regulator ?

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Sorry but that’s just too much random information to even start to fault find. 

 

What are voltages with engine off at...

  • Back of engine alternator
  • Back of domestic alternator
  • Engine battery
  • Domestic bank

What are the voltages at the same places with the engine running, with the revs fairly high - say 1200 rpm?

 

Given the above we can start to make suggestions. 

Edited by WotEver
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Hi

Thanks for the time...

Have become a bit confused myself but beginning to slowly understand.....maybe i will start with my system

Beta engine 2 alternators

One starter one domestic.

After 5 weeks out the water was craned back in....

Had been using landline power

Once back in the water o viously went back to 12v.

Two days later  things were fine when running engine to charge leisure batteries .Then warning light wouldnt go off nor the alarm after reving boat on start up on day 3.

If i remember correctly all 4 leisure batteries were reading 12.4 and starter battery 12.1.

When reved the starter still read 12.1.The alarm and light still stayed on.

On the blog someone informed me how to check alternator....+ on out from alternator and - to earth.

The starter battery alternator was reading 9.6 when idle and went up to 10.6 when reved.

I thought must be working and enquired at boat yard....i was told that alternator should be reading 14 so alternator was no good.

I ordered a new one from Beta after giving them engine details .The alternator was standard 14 amp.

I fitted new one and when started alarm still buzzing and light staying on.

I checked wiring where i could and fuses but no obvious signs.

 

Today i had a friend come and look for me....he knows a fair bit.

I should add here ( now what we think the problem is )

That i also have a sterling power 90amp splitter .Does this also regulate ?

We placed a spare cable from the starter alternator to + on starter battery and started boat.The alarm nor buzzer came on so we assumed it was the splitter faulty.I left the boat running for nearly 2 hours to charge now near on empty leisure batteries.

Thought id try start boat again after 5 mins just to make sure and nothing.

Was dark now but i put meter on starter batterie and read 6.0

Leisure batteries read 12.3.

Not getting new splitter till saturday so cant try that yet....friends co.ing back again in the morning.....any ideas ?

 

 

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40 minutes ago, markmiller said:

Not getting new splitter till saturday so cant try that yet....friends co.ing back again in the morning.....any ideas ?

Yep. Bin the splitter. Some folk seem to love them, but a search here will reveal lots of similar issues to yours. Without the splitter you'd only have had a problem on one side or t'other rather than the whole damned lot going down. You have 2 alternators, so dedicate the biggest to the domestic batteries and the other to the starter (and thruster if you have one). This is a pretty standard set up - exactly what my Beta engined boat has, and it has worked perfectly for years. The engine start and thruster batteries are both now 10 years old, so what would a splitter have achieved to improve the situation?.

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Yup, first things first, follow Sea Dog’s advice and bin the unwanted and irrelevant splitter.

 

Once everything is working as it should be and if you really want to keep the BT battery isolated when the engine isn’t running, feed it with a VSR fed from the engine start battery. 

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12 hours ago, WotEver said:

Yup, first things first, follow Sea Dog’s advice and bin the unwanted and irrelevant splitter.

 

Once everything is working as it should be and if you really want to keep the BT battery isolated when the engine isn’t running, feed it with a VSR fed from the engine start battery. 

Didn't we have another thread on here where someone had a duff alternator which was disguised by combining the two alternators with some fancy gismo

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2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Didn't we have another thread on here where someone had a duff alternator which was disguised by combining the two alternators with some fancy gismo

Probably, I lose track... it’s an age thing ;)

 

With VSRs now being widely available for not a lot of money and with most modern alternators capable of putting out 14.4V or more there’s really no longer any market for fancy gizmos. 

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13 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Probably, I lose track... it’s an age thing ;)

 

With VSRs now being widely available for not a lot of money and with most modern alternators capable of putting out 14.4V or more there’s really no longer any market for fancy gizmos. 

Tell that to Mr Sterling or the outfit that demands 14.7 or 14.8 to charge their AGMs. Basically I agree, they have in my view only ever been of real use in boats to cover up other faults or deficiencies in operation-----------------------------------------for a while.

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I am still trying to work out what this "splitter" actually is.

 

Is it a zero voltdrop split charge "diode" such as Sterling & Drifitgate sell?

Is it an ordinary split charge diode?

Is it a split charge relay?

Is it a voltage sensitive relay?

Is it a Sterling A to B charger?

 

If its an ordinary split charge diode then please do not fit another. It robs charging voltage from both batteries. Do what Wotever said and fit a VSR.

If its a zero voltdrop device or a Sterling A to B then by all means spend the money but a properly wired VSR will do the job just as well for around £40 or less.

If its a split charge relay then a new one would be OK as long as its wired to minimise current through the contacts but energising it is often not done for optimum operation so I would simplyfy the wiring and fir a VSR.

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4 hours ago, markmiller said:

Finally sorted my prob....was the splitter....old alternator fine...just bypassed bt split and putting new splitter on saturday

Spend ages diagnosing the fault; identify the defective weak link in your system; remove the defective weak link; spend money on a new weak link; fit a new weak link. Go figure! At least you'll know what's wrong next time I suppose. :(

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