[C320-list] re question in regards to water pump

[Jeff Hare]

Mounting the alternator itself was easy. I needed a slightly different belt size and that just took me buying several, finding the one that worked and returning the rest and getting a spare. 

Wiring this was a little bit more involved as I ran a new pair of power/ground cables from the alternator back to the main house battery. They were possibly 4 awg I think. These days its pretty easy to install a Balmar regulator and temp sensors back where the water pump is located to control the beast.

Best performance happens with the house batteries rewired in parallel with an added starting battery maintained by a Blue Seas ACR (automatic charging relay). 

The simplest config has you starting the engine with the house battery, and the alternator always charging the house bank directly. Essentially put the switch in "1" and forget you even have a 1-2-both switch. If you accidentally draw the house down to where the engine won't start just flip to the other battery position (starting battery) and fire it up, then switch back. Everything atomatically gets recharged as needed. 

Easy. 

-jeff

yachtman165 at comcast.net wrote:

Jeff, What was involved installing the 125 amp alternator. thanks Don