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97 43 mercruiser alternator and gear fill up resvoir

Y

ycart0

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"Trying to get this boat ready

"Trying to get this boat ready for season. `997 bryant 4.3 mercriuser. The alternator decided to stop working. The one on this boat was the mando. Gave the guy the part numbers he sent me the ac delco. He Said it would work fine. 2 problems. The wiring colors are different. The mando Has purple and red. The ac delco has black and red. I'm thinking red stays the same and the black replaces the purple. Is this correct? Also on this ac delco alternator it had the pulley for the v belt not the serpentine. So what is did (probably made a mistake) got a similar pulley off an old alternor and put it on the new one. Problem is once I got the new alternor on the boat I noticed a slight wobble when spinning the pulley. ( I think I have a messed need some expert advice there, we used an impact wrench when tighting the pulley on. I am wondering if I messed the bearing or whole alternator.) My friend helping me says it should really matter. He's a mechanic so I'm giving him the benifit of the doubt but still wanted better advice.

The gear oil
Need to know if what I did was right, if not how to make it right.

This does have the resvoir with the fill line on the engine. I removed the vent screw and the fill screw. I filled it up the the vent hole. put the both screw in and then fill up the resvoir. But i think that I may have air trapped inbetween air vent and the resvoir. Whats my solution if any. Thanks guys"
 
I am guessing that you have an

I am guessing that you have an Alpha 1 outdrive if so best way to fill is with a pump from the bottom of the drive... pump until you reach just below the fill line on the tank..
 
The OD reservior will "bur

The OD reservior will "burp" the air in the oil line; don't worry about it.

The alternator shaft may be bent on the end or the pulley is cocked. Is the alt. putting out voltage?
 
"It sounds like you have the &

"It sounds like you have the "single wire GM type"
orange or red to output lug, black to case ground, insulate and tape the 2 small wires from the harness"
 
The wobble definatly needs to

The wobble definatly needs to be addressed. If it fails it could cause your water pump to quit and if your WOT when it happens you could seriously damage the engine before its noticed.
 
"On the mando alternator. it h

"On the mando alternator. it has the purple going to the purple wire and the red going to the red purple. the ac delco alternator has a black wire and a red wire. Will the black wire take the place of the purple on the on the mando. So in other words do I plug the black wire into the purple wire and the red wire into the red purple wire. Or do I plug the black wire into the red purple wire and the red wire into the purple wire. I know its confusing


I'm not 100% sure at the moment which way we have it plugged in but at idle the alternator show 13 volts. Once I rev the engine it shows 14 volts. With the test i was using I was able to put a load on the battery when doing this it dropped down to 12. Is this working correcty. I do notice a slight wobble. Very slight. My helper tells me it should be ok. I'm not certain that he can see the wobble. Did I most likely kill my warranty by changing the pull on this alternator. Whats my best solution.

Sorry to be so lengthy. Just wanted to give adquate information.
Thanks for all the great advice You guys /(gals if any) are awesome.
Be Blessed tracy"
 
"the wobble may only affect th

"the wobble may only affect the bearings in the altenator if at all, engine and other accessories will be negated by the belt & tensioner."
 
"Tracy:

Follow what the Bt

"Tracy:

Follow what the Bt Doctor said to do!

"It sounds like you have the "single wire GM type" orange or red to output lug, black to case ground, insulate and tape the 2 small wires from the harness"

Your boat alternator wiring is as follows:

Orange wire = output lead (connect to the alternator's output)
Black wire = ground lead (connect to the alternator's ground)
Purple wire = excitation lead (TAPE IT UP)
Red w/purple wire = sensing lead (TAPE IT UP)

Follow what the Bt Doctor said to do!

"It sounds like you have the "single wire GM type" orange or red to output lug, black to case ground, insulate and tape the 2 small wires from the harness""
 
"yea, less drag on the engine,

"yea, less drag on the engine, the boat will go really fast till the engine blows up.

Of course depends on the wobble +- 10% ?

Maybe Obama will start warrantying Marine engines too.. since it is a GM."
 
"Even a slight wobble at 4000

"Even a slight wobble at 4000 rpm can create alot of vibration. I just dont think its good advice to run it without putting it on a bench and making sure its not an optical illusion. If there is a wobble you need to find out why. I bought an alternator from NAPA for my mustang. It lasted about a week. Got another one, lasted about 2 days. The second one was assembled incorrectly and the pulley was misalined. When a load was applied, It lined up, but now the pulley was lose. It spun on alt shaft and wore it out to where you could not tighten down the bolt enough. Lady at NAPA tried to accuse me of screwing it up, But it obviously had a new pulley on it which I had to point out. I told her that 6 year old asian girls have trouble rebuilding auto parts, especially heavy ones. She disagreed of course, so I got a refund but no friggin core. Long story short, its bad advice to run an engine with an obvious pulley problem. Especially considering the consequences."
 
Purple wire = excitation lead

Purple wire = excitation lead
Red w/purple wire = sensing lead

What does each lead do? Is this causing the voltage issue? Or is the way the voltage acting normal?

The way the alternator is hook up right now is the purple lead is plugged into the red lead off the the alternator.
The red and purple lead is plugged into the black lead off the alternator.
Then the black ground is bolted on and the orange wire in bolted on.
So that I'm clear your saying to disconnect both wires and tape off the wires on the alternator and from the wireing harness?

New problem occuring. Well let me explain and get you guys opinion to see if i really have a problem.

When idle if I accel really quick the engine bogs. But if i slowing accel the engine revs fine. I thought the accel pump in the webber 4bbl carb was bad so I replaced that but still the hessitation. I haven't put it on the water yet. So not sure how it will hessitate on the water. I thought at first I was just gasing to quickly but my friend told me he's things something in the ignition firing. Do you guys know or how can I tell if this engine has points or not? 1997 4.3 mercruiser.

Thanks for all the help
Be Blessed Tracy
 
"Do you have a service manual?

"Do you have a service manual? Most of your answers should be in there. Start engine and let run for 2 min. Shut off ignition and remove spark arrestor/breather. Look down in carb with flashlight and have buddy work accelerator. If accel pump is working correctly you should see to solid streams of fuel. If you see more of a trickle or sputter of fuel you might have a check valve prob on accel pump. Next check would be timing which service manual does nice job of walking you thru. Points could possibly cause this, but hard starting is usually the prob you have with points. And dont forget tha old vaccum advance. I have never seen one fail, but anything is possible."
 
You have Thunderbolt ignition

You have Thunderbolt ignition and not points. Defective spark plug wires can cause your problem.

Alternator: did it come w/instructions? Are you saying the alternator has two wires attached to it and a ground post and B+ output post? If that is the case then it is not a single wire alt. Determining what the red and black wires are attached to on the alt. would help. Look and see if there are some numbers or letters on the alt. where the red and black wires attach.
 
I think I have it hook correct

I think I have it hook correctly ... I think
To answer your question guy if I had instruction we lost them. yes also to the alternation having 2 wires attached to it and a ground and a B out put post I switched the wires two wires coming out of the alternator around and didn't get any charge on my guages. So I switched them back. It reds 12 - 13 volts while idle. when reving the enging it shows 14 volts. Is this normal for a boat.
 
It reds(read's) 12

It reds(read's) 12 - 13 volts while idle. when reving the enging it shows 14 volts. Is this normal for a boat. or should is read a constant 14 volts ?
 
Awesome. Thanks for all the he

Awesome. Thanks for all the help. My next thing is hopefully hit the lake and see how this thing acts on the water. Then I'll probably start a new post
1 Last question What does WOT stand for.
Thanks Be Blessed Tracy
 
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