Cruising Without Alternator (Temporarily)

[Rumpi]

Theway, yours is a textbook case of worn/stuck brush. In the picture with the rotor you can see the two sliprings, one shiny, one green. The brush on the green one was not touching anymore with enough friction to clean the surface and transfer current. The high heat high humidity climate just accelerated a normal process, it corroded the rings and baked the carbon dust enough to stop the brush. With new brushes even if the rings corrode from sitting around there is enough tension to keep them firmly pressed on. The difference between "good" and "bad" brush lenght can be as little as 0,5mm.
Just enjoy your clean alt with new brushes and pat yourself on the back for asking the forum before buying a brand new one over some bad brushes. And remember to calibrate your digital voltmeter.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by theway

Here’s some photos.

Before and after I cleaned it. As I mentioned I had an exhaust leak last year. I’ve cleaned up most things....

Model plate...

And some pics from the shop... Looks pretty old, but he didn’t call attention to anything but the brushes.

Attachment 193661
Attachment 193663

Attachment 193662

Hey Tehway, That's a great alternator, Balmar 90100. It's my favorite one of all the alternators I've had. I've got one which I keep getting rebuilt every 5 or so years. I've talked to the techs at Balmar and was told that it's their favorite too. It's output is high and it dissipates heat better than their newer ones, which I noticed right away when I bought one of the newer ones in 2010.

The only problem is, as I was told, Balmar can't get enough of the frames to build as many as they can sell, so they changed to the newer, less great, model which is more readily available. An example of success making a product worse.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by theway

Hey Rumpi... yup, he showed me the brushes and i could see how short they were, I gave the nod to fix and they were replaced. And yup he did a few test, one test he did a little out of my sight with a battery on the floor, guessing that might have tested magnetism... after that he gave the nod that it was good.

Thanks for the explanation, I was googling but nowhere explains that link between brushes and magnetism.

I’ll be a couple nights here in Mataram and then I’ll install Thursday or Friday.

The brushes provide the connection to the rotor, no connection, no current, no current, no magnetism.

Brushes are the most common failure.

So new brushes, works now?

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

The brushes provide the connection to the rotor, no connection, no current, no current, no magnetism.

Brushes are the most common failure.

So new brushes, works now?

In my experience, the field windings themselves have burned out (either gone open or shorted). I have never had brush failure.

I must have been cranking the output too high after I learned about the advanced programming available on Zantrex regulators. And, foolishly, I bumped up the allowable alternator temperature to keep the regulator from dropping into reduced output mode. Cost me some money.

Now I stay with the standard programming for my battery type.

[lordgeoff]

Originally Posted by theway

My alternator recently died and was wondering how long a starter battery can last if only used for cranking the engine? I have the Bluetop D34M. I’m curious about two situations...

1: (Curiosity) If the starter battery was only used for cranking and never charged. How many cranks could it do?

2: (Actual) If the starter battery was charged some from 2 - 100watt solar panels.... I have 2 House banks fed by 2 - 100watt solar panels (one per bank). That power can also be sent to the starter battery when the starter battery switch is on. My general power needs are low and easily met with the solar, my concern is starter battery draw from each crank.

(I’m in Indonesia and would like to make it to Singapore if possible, but that would be about 1,000 miles and about 60 days. A few moments ago I created a separate thread about trying to source a Balmar Alternator in Indonesia. )

Thanks,
austin

After reading bits and pieces of these interminable posts I’m pretty sure Austin is taking the piss out of all of us.
Man I wouldn’t drive from the Gold Coast to Brisbane without an alternator.
Driving 60 days for 1,000NM with the possibility of no engine in Indonesia? Really? Somewhere among Indonesia’s 200 million people and about the same number of vehicles surely anyone who thinks they can manage a vessel can get an alternator.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by lordgeoff

After reading bits and pieces of these interminable posts I’m pretty sure Austin is taking the piss out of all of us.
Man I wouldn’t drive from the Gold Coast to Brisbane without an alternator.
Driving 60 days for 1,000NM with the possibility of no engine in Indonesia? Really? Somewhere among Indonesia’s 200 million people and about the same number of vehicles surely anyone who thinks they can manage a vessel can get an alternator.

Nah, he was in a place where he did not know if he could get professional help and wanted to know what were his chances of getting to one where he could. The interminable posts were from folks with good samaritan instincts who thought they might be able to assist in some way.

In my teenage days a mate and I ran around in an old Austin 8 the boss of the garage gave us. For a long time it did not have a generator and we would put the battery on a charger during our working hours in preparation for the nights hooning. Since he is on a sail boat and has solar panels to recharge with he was in good shape to continue voyaging.

A fair chunk of my post WW2 youth was spent wandering around the country with my parents in old motor cars without either alternators, generators, batteries or lights. They had magneto ignitions, were hand cranked to start and we shut the journey down at sun down and camped beside the road. A lot of the blokes around then would consider all that stuff as frivolous wastes of money and not necessary to the serious traveler.

[theway]

Originally Posted by Rumpi

Theway, yours is a textbook case of worn/stuck brush. In the picture with the rotor you can see the two sliprings, one shiny, one green. The brush on the green one was not touching anymore with enough friction to clean the surface and transfer current. The high heat high humidity climate just accelerated a normal process, it corroded the rings and baked the carbon dust enough to stop the brush. With new brushes even if the rings corrode from sitting around there is enough tension to keep them firmly pressed on. The difference between "good" and "bad" brush lenght can be as little as 0,5mm.
Just enjoy your clean alt with new brushes and pat yourself on the back for asking the forum before buying a brand new one over some bad brushes. And remember to calibrate your digital voltmeter.

Perfect explication and excellent observation, thank you again.

The alternator went on this morning and works perfectly. I tested for magnetism before I started the engine and it was there. I cranked the engine and got about 14.5V from the onboard inside battery meter.

I do however have one last question. Which may prevent me from starting a new thread. Can you explain why the outside/instrument volt gauge pulses And the needle jumps from 0 to 13-14V (As well as the sound of the alternator pulsing and the light on the ARS-2 regulator going off and on)... This seems to be the case when batteries are full and don’t need much charge. It’s as if the regulator is turning off and on just topping off and stopping. I have a video of the outside volt gauge if that would help.

As for the multimeter, I changed the battery in it and it seems to be fine again. There was no section in the mania about calibration.

[Rumpi]

The regulator pulsing can have different causes. Maybe it really switches on and off really quick and your meter is sensible enough to see that. This is best answered by the manufacturer. Another possibility is that your field wire is to close to the output wire and picks up induced magnetism.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

Nah, he was in a place where he did not know if he could get professional help and wanted to know what were his chances of getting to one where he could. The interminable posts were from folks with good samaritan instincts who thought they might be able to assist in some way.

In my teenage days a mate and I ran around in an old Austin 8 the boss of the garage gave us. For a long time it did not have a generator and we would put the battery on a charger during our working hours in preparation for the nights hooning. Since he is on a sail boat and has solar panels to recharge with he was in good shape to continue voyaging.

A fair chunk of my post WW2 youth was spent wandering around the country with my parents in old motor cars without either alternators, generators, batteries or lights. They had magneto ignitions, were hand cranked to start and we shut the journey down at sun down and camped beside the road. A lot of the blokes around then would consider all that stuff as frivolous wastes of money and not necessary to the serious traveler.

And now you have an Island Packet. Come up in the world haven't you.