Help Identifying Part In Battery Compartment

[windcat]

My DH (darling husband) says ditto to above. Get rid of it, it's a fire hazard.

[boatbod]

My guess it's a diode rectifier (hard to see how just how many diodes) and may be for a Kiss wind generator or a home-made battery isolator.

Either way it looks burned out.

[jrau18]

Wow, a lot more responses. Thanks to everybody.

I'll verify tomorrow that it isn't currently useful anymore.

I do have a solar system, but it is not part of this, so if this is for wind/solar like some suggested, it is definitely no longer required.

I have a more modern battery switch as well, so definitely not used for that.

Anyway, I'll trace the wires tomorrow and remove it if it doesn't seem important after that. I ended up doing brightwork all day, so forgot to do that. We're in a boatyard for transmission work, so running through the project list as long as we're out of the water.

[Hkalan]

I have a 53 foot teak cruiser built in 1988 with Gardner Diesel Engines, and I had the exact unit on the port engine. The unit in the picture is an off-breed type of voltage regulator from the older dynamo (not alternator) that was a cheap replacement from a stock voltage regulator. Glad you got rid of it... I found a shop that still sells them for the older Gardner diesels... only $11 USD and have a 7 day warranty !!! That should tell you how reliable they are !!