Alternator Question

[TXHNTR]

I went to the lake today and the boat ran great.  But at idle my accuski and analog battery meter both showed about 12.2-12.6 volts.  When i throttled up (over 1000rpm) both gauges showed about 10-11 volts.  and the accuski kept blinking low voltage.  Has anybody had this problem?  Im thinking a possible regulator issue if not a bad alternator.  Im just trying to narrow it down.  Does anybody know if the regulatr is the same as a regulas lexus regulator or is it built special?  What about the alternator, same question.  Thanks for the help.
Mike

[Capt Rick]

Need hull number of boat... If vdrive you can have bad alt if it got wet..

Take voltage with meter at battery...

May need addition ground wire? does the boat have a heater...

[TXHNTR]

hull ID # SOETC076K900.  Never been wet to my knowledge.  And for reference its a 2000 epic x22.  Thanks for your help.  Also had one other issue.  I greased the steering system the other day.  when the boat is on the trailer it never "hangs or chines" but when under power and trying to turn left it hangs BAD.  Any ideas of other things to check or replace?  It only does it under power, so its going to be a replace or repair nad test scenario.

[FreeLance]

Oil is not murky or over filled.  Still looks a beautiful clear red.  I am going to pull the cooler tonight and give it a good inspection and then order the new part.  Should be real fun getting it out of there...

The boat was winterized by my barely capable hands.  I followed the TMS procedure (TSB45) to the letter which has you turn the engine over with the kill switch pulled (Step 7).  My guess is with the bad impeller it probably did not pull the water out of there.  Although I have the shower installed on my boat and as a backup procedure I ran both the hot and cold water taps with the pump on and this also pulled a bunch of water out of the system.

TXHNTR, you can click on the TMS parts link in the upper left corner of the site and then do a search on:

3349067010

This is the part number for the cooler.  If your oil is murky you may want to have Capt. give you a procedure to figure out what may be causing it.

[FreeLance]

Aye, wrong thread, sorry.  The site acts really weird for me, links dissapear and move around and icons never show up.

[Capt Rick]

Look for thread on adding addition #10 wire from battery fuse to decc postitive and ground wire to negative.
First check voltage at battery it might have a poor ground connections that get false alt output....
Remove ground on block and clean. battery connections too.

[toyotafreak]

I got all fired up over this years ago and pulled and tested the alternator. It's a beast of a thing and outputs lot 'o amperes.

We've all got to run power from the Perko to the dash. I haven't done it, but Pete and others have. The OEM wire is 10 gauge, and you either need to run a second set (positive and ground) of 10 or go up to 8 if you're nasty.

Make sure you fuse them (like the OEM line is).

Pete, do you have a procedure for this written yet?

[westtx]

Is this procedure required on the 99 model MDC dash? I've had no problems yet so far. Thanks

[TXHNTR]

i tried to search for what he was talking about and couldnt find it. 

[toyotafreak]

Well, I didn't search through but remember Pete did it and the low voltage alarm stopped its shenanigans.

One doc here talks to bringing unswitched power all the way forward. I think I'll look around a bit beforehand to see if there's a common place that'll still do a good job.

Here's a good doc to read that talks to color coding of wires headed up there. http://www.epicmarine.com/docs/Digital_Instrument_Guide.pdf

Westtx, if you're not getting low voltage alarms on your message center every time you get above 25 mph, I reckon you don' thave anything to worry about.

[westtx]

Since I don't even have a message center, I guess I'm ok! Just regular old guages for me.

[toyotafreak]

Sweet. So where does your depth finder display?

[westtx]

Its below the throttle right next to the driver's seat. Really a pain to see, especially with sunglasses, but it works!

[sailtl]

Westtx:
Do yourself a favor and run a separate power and ground to your MDC. It will make trouble shooting down the road a lot easier. Medallion recomends  this also. Just remember to put a fuse near the battery. I ran my red (Hot) wire out of the Perko main battery switch with a fuse at about the same length away as the other fuse that feeds the dash. I also cut the original power and ground leads near the MDC and just used the new wires.

[westtx]

I don't have the medallion dash. When I get back home, I'll email a picture of the setup. I hate to do this stuff myself, because if it can be srewed up, I can figure out how to make it happen! I do have a local mechanic who is pretty good, and we work on the boat together. Maybe the  guys at the Lake Travis round-up can help!