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Battery charging problem

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rick_h_2

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"Can anyone help me to figure

"Can anyone help me to figure out if I have a charging issue or what is happening in normal? My charging indicators which used to run about 13.5 volts and could be influenced by the throttle hover in the 10-12 range. The batteries when checked by a volt meter are 12.39---12.62. I took my genset battery and switched the wiring to check if I could have a bad battery...recently I had to add about a pint of water to each battery because the dock side charger must have boiled away some of the acid. This didn't make a difference at the gauge. The engines start fine, is it that the batteries don't need any additional volts or are the batteries somehow effecting the alternators charging...just seems strange that both engine chargers are messed up at the same time?"
 
"I too have experienced low wa

"I too have experienced low water in my batteries and am in the process of finding out what's causing it: the alternators or the AC charger. I'm doing this by leaving the AC charger OFF while not at the boat and checking water levels when I return. You might have to do that as well, so you know what the culprit is.

Jeff"
 
"What you have isn't norma

"What you have isn't normal.

You need at least 13.5V at the batteries to charge them. (You also need to keep the electrolyte level full, too). If you don't have 13.5V at the battery, check to see what the alternator is producing at its output lug. if there's more than 0.2V difference between the alternator and the battery, look for a bad/corroded wire.

A somewhat common occurence is the belt not being tight - pretty easy to check and fix, if needed.

you could also have a bad wire or connection going to the instrument panel. If the gauge is consistant with the voltmeter reading, probably time to take the alternators to a rebuild shop."
 
"The last boat I had gave me t

"The last boat I had gave me that same issue and it turned out to be a corroded connection at the back of the alternator. Once I cleaned it, it started charging and never gave me another issue for the next 4 years until I sold the boat."
 
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