[scook]

Bradford brings up the second issue. The shop says my alternator is only charging @ 12.1 to 12.2 volts. It seems to me that's enough to keep the batteries from draining while I'm running, but not enough to charge them up. It's the Mercruiser 170 (I think that's pretty much exactly the same thing as a 470). It has the alternator that's integral with the crank pulley.

A couple of years ago I had to rebuild the water pump, which is buried deep and needed to pull the crank pulley. The magnets were all loose, it was full of rust and there was some corrosion on the windings. It had eaten probably 1/4 of the way through the wire in a few places. I cleaned out the corrosion and varnished the coils thoroughly. I think the dash gauge was reading 13+ volts when I fired it up, but can't swear to it. Thanks again to Spare for getting me through that project with a little bit of sanity left.

I'll need to go to the manual - I don't even know where the voltage regulator is located. Any diagnostic comments would be appreciated.

Spare - the Guest chargers say they drop off to a float charge after the batteries are charged up - shouldn't I be able to leave that on all the time? Destroyer comments that the 10 amp charge doesn't hurt the battery if it not left on too long.