100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

[Chexi]

Is there a way to tell whether the alternator in my boat is the stock 50 amp or the upgraded 100 amp without having access to any numbers? I know that it is not the original. It seems big to me, but what the heck do I know. It doesn't really look like either the 50 or the 100 on the White Lake web store, although I'd say it looks more like the 50.

It was replaced only shortly before I bought it, but the seller is now out of the country for a 1-2 year trek across Australia, so asking him is not possible. I'm guessing he burned the original one up powering his cranking battery plus 2 deep cycle batteries, which were only on a Perko switch

I did take some pictures.

[JUST-IN-TIME]

RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

you need to hook an amp meter and find out

[jaybird]

RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

Are you even sure it is marine? Looks odd. Nothing like any of mine and I have a spare 45 amps 1988 PCM type. one 70 amp 2003 PCM and the new 100 amp pcm. None look anything like that. i hope someone didnt put a standard car alternator on it.

[jaybird]

100 AMP

Not sure if this will help but this is the 100 AMP that came from SECC 2007

[jaybird]

RE: 100 AMP

Is your output wire is 4 gauge? If so its a good bet its 100 AMP. If you have a 10 gauge its probally the 45 or 50 stock amp

[jaybird]

RE: 100 AMP

Guess your upgrading your audio amps?

[Chexi]

RE: 100 AMP

It would not surprise me if it is a car alternator. The last owner was a royal dip. The boat has a 4 channel Alpine and a mono Alpine amp already. Both car (not marine) under the observer seat. I bought the boat last summer and it ran fine. I never really cranked the tunes though, as the last owner had also installed a car head unit, which would clip in and out because it was totally corroded. The motor ran perfectly however.

The last owner worked for Chris Craft (not Correct Craft) and his Chris Craft mechanic probably placed this alternator in there. He did all the annual maintenance.

If this is a car alternator, what kind of problems could it cause (other than just burning itself out)? Could it mess up the engine or electrical system some how? I hate to replace something that appears to be working fine (as there are many things to replace already that definitely need fixing). But... I don't want this to be a ticking time bomb either.

[JUST-IN-TIME]

RE: 100 AMP

you can blow up
the internals are not sealed for sparks!

[AirTool]

Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

you need to hook an amp meter and find out

Your kidding, right? Tell him the rest of the procedure.

[WakeSlayer]

RE: Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

I think Jaybird is right on the automotive alternator. JIT is right too, your boat can blow up. same is true with starters, and distributors that are not marinized. Change it out. You need to worry about this stuff more than your stereo system.

[Chexi]

RE: Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

Dang! Thanks guys. I must have something important to do on Earth, because it sounds like I was unknowingly really pushing my luck last season, and to have not blown myself up can only mean that someone is looking out for me. Not only am I probably running with a car alternator, but when I inspected the engine today, I found that the exhaust hose to the blower was completely disintegrated! Can I just use standard 3" black flex hose for the blower line (looks like a dryer vent hose but smaller and black)?

I will definitely pull the alternator now and see if I can find something on it to indicate what it is and whether it is marinized. Oh well... what's another $320 bucks.

[bchesley]

RE: Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

buy the kit on whitelake and you are guaranteed to have a 100 amp with the correct wiring to match......

[WakeSlayer]

RE: Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

You need marine rated wet exhaust hose. Try www.skidim.com

[Mikeski]

RE: Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

If the previous owner was a chris craft mechanic I would expect the alternator to be a marine alternator. Based on the other things you are finding, I would not be surprised if it is a 100A alternator hooked to the 50A wiring harness? Look for melted wires.

If there is a spark arrestor screen covering the vent holes at the rear of the alternator it a marine unit. The main difference between car and marine alternator is the spark arrestor. All electrical components in the motor compartment need to be "ignition protected" so they are not capable of igniting a fire.

For the blower, use blower hose, not exhaust hose. Sounds like the boat may have overheated?

For your speakers, you might be able to front load your existing Pioneers (from your other thread). Some of the Pioneer speakers are tuned very brightly which works well in a boat. If you front load them and add a sandwich your stock panel with a metal or plastic ring on the backside it might hold everything together, cracks and all. With the added backing ring the stock panel should have adequate support for the heavier speakers. The Polk MMC's are quite heavy, that's one of the reasons amoung many that I prefer to use the db series (the db are much lighter). Infinity Kappa's are also very light but you need to be careful with their 2 ohm load, and you need to deal with the crossovers too. Using car speakers in boats is nothing new, if you are in salt and your speakers get wet, you should stick with marine speakers (JL, Polk, etc.).

Please check that heavy gauge wire coming from your alternator to see if it's melted.

[Chexi]

RE: Re: RE: 100 Amp Alternator? 99 Air

Thanks for the reply Mikeski.

I will be down at my boat again next weekend and check the wires. I'll probably pull the alternator to see if I can find some numbers. I guess if it is a 100 amp marine alternator hooked into a 50amp harness, hopefully I can just find a 100 amp harness to replace the 50 amp harness. The boat ran beautifully last summer after I picked it up. I took it out about 8 times. However, I never cranked the stereo (as it was giving us problems). Looks like I threw the dice 8 times and fortunately did not come up with craps.

I won't be in salt. I'll be in freshwater only. I'd have to find grills for the pioneer speakers, and they are oval and bigger than the 5" factors hole in the vinyl. I'd rather just buy speakers that fit and have covers/grills. Perhaps I can ebay the pioneer speakers.

I recently ordered a new blower from Whitelake as my old one was whinning for a minute or so when I started. The person I spoke to said that my boat takes a 4" blower instead of a 3". I did not measure the blower when I was down there yesterday, but by eye it looked more like 3". The hose coming off it looked to be the same diameter as the 3" vent hose underneath the dash and observer seat. Now that I am looking again at the Whitelake site, it says that the 4" is for V-drives. I guess he assumed that my 99 Air as a 99 Super Air. Crap... it is already in transit. Hopefully it can be recalled. Oh well, we'll see.