alternator to hot to touch

I have a 1995 5.7 vortec mercruiser. I put in a new alternator 50amp. I never noticed it before the alt. is getting very hot. It's charging good & using a multi-meter to test it is putting out 14.05 volts. Does marine alt. get this hot?

not unless the battery is going bad

Bt Doctur said:

not unless the battery is going bad

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Thank you for getting back to me, I purchased the battery's 1 year ago, with the key on off the battery's are reading 12.63 volts & eng. running they read 14.05 volts. I never felt the alt. before while running, thats why this caught me off guard. Did you ever feel a alt. while running? I don't know if this is normal.

Heat is never good for alternators. It could be that there's not enough cooling air getting thru the alt, there's a lot of resistance in the charge cable, or the charge load is demanding. Clean all your connections down to shiny metal and retighten. If necessary, consider going to a high output alternator if you are running a lot of accessories/load on your banks. Those 55 amp Mando alternators are good quality units but they are not really pumping out much juice. If you're running along at 35-4500 rpm then you probably are getting about 25-30 actual amps out of it.

Visit you local starter / alternator shop ( if you can still find one ) and ask about the temperature of an alternator when operating.----They do have a cooling fan after all.