[C320-list] Rough idle on diesel due to Balmar Alternator?

[David J Gleason]

Alex:

On the Perkins engine, the alternator does not start charging until
around 1500 to 1600 RPM.  

Dave Gleason
Proud Mary, #150

On Fri, 7 Jul 2006 22:17:27 -0700 (PDT) Alex Krause
<al_exander at yahoo.com> writes:
> I'm new to the C320 IA.  Bought hull 273 a couple months ago, keep in 
> Long Beach CA, and am in the process of fixing all the little 
> gremlins on the boat.  Wife and I really like the boat and I'm glad 
> to have found this association.  
>    
>   Hull 273 (Westerbeke 30B3) has a very rough, loud, vibrating idle 
> at times.  It is intermittent.  I think it has to do with the high 
> output Balmar alternator that was installed.  At 80amps, which 
> equates to 3 to 4hp (~10% of peak hp), engine idle is reduced as 
> there is no automatic idle compensation like todays car engines.  
> Normal idle is 1150rpm, sometimes it drops to 600rpm.  After 
> contemplating this for a while I've come to the conclusion that it 
> must be the alternator.  I'm not certain this is the reason.  Has 
> anyone else experienced this with their diesel's after installing a 
> high output alternator?
> To solve this I'm investigating an on/off switch for the regulator 
> but I'd like to be certain this is the problem.
> Alex
> Coruna Cat #273  
> 
>                  
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