Alternator advice - '85 Mercruiser 170

scook

scook

God
This is the integral one. The stator is shorted to ground / the commutator looks very good / rhe voltage regulator tested good as far as I went. Assuming it checks out OK, would you suggest a new stator at around $200 or changing to an external alternator for the same or a little more money?

If an external one, what brands are reliable? On another forum, some 170 guys liked a kit by Breezeworks (they sell a 3-wire alternator in their kit). If I go for a 1-wire, how do I know it's a true 1-wire and will charge at low RPM? I'm short on time, so need a kit with all the parts - I don't have time to fab anything right now.

Any help is appreciated - thanks.
 
make sure you have room for the alternator, not knowing how big your engine compartment is, but the alternator kits I've seen take up a lot of room in front of the engine and to the starboard side, if you don't have room, then the decision is easy. I haven't done a swap over in a long while, so I'm probably out of date on the offerings. I've got a 25 Bertram that I'm helping a friend with that has two 3.7L mercruiser v drives in it, we are going to swap out the charging system to alternators and use the area where a power steering pump would be to mount it
 
Spare - how long before you decide what alternators you're going to use on your buddy's boat? I really want to get mine functioning, but would wait a little to see what you come up with.

If I buy a stator on ebay and find it's shorted to ground, or other problems when I get it am I likely to get my money back - not experienced with ebay. Also, would you be inclined to go with the $50 - 100 used ones or the $300+/- new ones?
 
ebay stators will probably not have any warranty unless it states different, even then it may be an issue as most companies won't give credit for returned electrical parts. If you go that route, look at ebasicpower, they have the stator on there for $219. Thats not much more than my cost. The 3.7s we are going to convert are a very different set up, with them being inboards, they have an unusual set up with a sea water pump and an odd engine bracket that prevents a normal conversion kit being used. We are going to have to come up with our own set up
 
On EBAY.... If the seller states that is is in good condition and you pay w PayPal then 99% of the time PayPal will refund you if it shows up "not as described". In that case you will get a shipping label to return it and when tracking shows it is returned you get a 100% refund including shipping costs.... The seller has nothing to say about it.

That said, I wouldn't waste my time installing used charging components that are just as old as the ones that failed... Once and done beats the heck out of doing it again next month.
 
Agree with Smoke, use new stuff with a warranty. Even then sometimes the new stuff doesn't work right out of the box.
 
Yeah, I agree. It doesn't make sense to install something that's as old as what failed. Time to do the research on whether to go with replacing original parts or doing a conversion. Thanks
 
alt. conversion

my voltage regulator melted a while back. very costly for a new one so I too looked into the alternator conversion, decided to go that route. there is a company that sells the entire kit, I forget the name…I bought it for I think 3 hundred and some change. installation was pretty simple, I removed all of the old charging components and have run it a good bit since with no problems! if you need more details on the process do ask.
 
I bought a kit from Breezeworks. It was a long afternoon installing it - the parts all seemed fine and they fit OK. The instructions were fair - not real detailed and they told me to skip two steps (since I don't have power steering) and it should have only been one step but it was pretty obvious. Spare was right about checking that there's enough room. I had to cut about 5/8" out of the edge of the deck inside the engine well but it was all on the horizontal - didn't look like it weakened anything significantly.

Fired it up and it charged fine. I have one fishing trip on it (probably 5 miles) and no problems. It's a good project for anyone who's a little bit handy and has a few tools. I'm glad I had my Harbor Freight oscillating multi tool to make the cut in the deck, it wasn't easy to access but an old fashioned coping saw and some patience would have done it.
 
I highly recommend putting a dial indicator on the new pulley, if it is not as close to perfect as you can get it time will take a toll on the mounting brackets from bad vibrations! A friend of mine learned that the hard way haha
 
I saw the ones that came with a pulley that you add on and have to set up with a dial gauge - the one I got runs the belt off the existing harmonic balancer. I wasn't looking forward to laying on the deck, messing with the pulley - I would have done it but really liked the simple installation of the Breezeworks kit.

Thanks Smoke - good catch. That had slipped past me - I'll do it.
 
Hey scook,
My 170 was converted over to an external alternator before I got it. It has worked fine till yesterday when the adjusting bracket broke and the alternator fell off damaging the alt. fan. Gotta fab up a new bracket. Mine mounts on top of the front engine mount with a adjustment bracket that mounts to the motor water pump. I think years of a little vibration and metal fatigue finally broke my bracket. I bought a new marine 105 amp alternator years ago from Rare Electric out of Cherokee N.C. for 67.00 about eight years ago and its done great!
 
Hey Bro' Felton,

Sorry to hear about the busted bracket - hopefully you're like me and enjoy little fab projects like that. I wonder if there's a way to work a rubber grommet in the mix somewhere to dampen the vibration? Anyway, I hope you get the old girl going soon - this is the season. Also, very happy to hear about improvements on the home front - that's the really important stuff:clap:
 
Thanks Scook! Made up a new bracket and fixed the alternator fan. Got it back out on the river with my baby, and all ran great. Did your conversion kit work out ok?
 
The conversion is working great. Haven't got many hours on it - kind of screwed up my back pulling my anchor the hard way and am taking a while to heal up. The boat's in better shape than I am right now but I'm getting better.
 
scook said:
The conversion is working great. Haven't got many hours on it - kind of screwed up my back pulling my anchor the hard way and am taking a while to heal up. The boat's in better shape than I am right now but I'm getting better.
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Sounds like you need an anchor ball. No need to pull the anchor, let the boat do it for you.
 
Well Ferm, thank you very much for bringing up the subject:nut:

That's the REALLY stupid part of it - I have an anchor ball. We were moving a little way to the side to get to a slightly different depth (under any given conditions, the fish tend to swim more or less single file up the river). In my pea brain, I thought I'd just pull it by hand and get it done. We use anchors that have pretty long tines and it was buried in the sand real solid - so much for being smarter because you're older. It's hard to remember that I'm not 23 any more.
 
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