Alternator advice - '85 Mercruiser 170

[bradford]

Agree with Smoke, use new stuff with a warranty. Even then sometimes the new stuff doesn't work right out of the box.

[scook]

Yeah, I agree. It doesn't make sense to install something that's as old as what failed. Time to do the research on whether to go with replacing original parts or doing a conversion. Thanks

[Jbreen07]

my voltage regulator melted a while back. very costly for a new one so I too looked into the alternator conversion, decided to go that route. there is a company that sells the entire kit, I forget the name…I bought it for I think 3 hundred and some change. installation was pretty simple, I removed all of the old charging components and have run it a good bit since with no problems! if you need more details on the process do ask.

[scook]

I bought a kit from Breezeworks. It was a long afternoon installing it - the parts all seemed fine and they fit OK. The instructions were fair - not real detailed and they told me to skip two steps (since I don't have power steering) and it should have only been one step but it was pretty obvious. Spare was right about checking that there's enough room. I had to cut about 5/8" out of the edge of the deck inside the engine well but it was all on the horizontal - didn't look like it weakened anything significantly.

Fired it up and it charged fine. I have one fishing trip on it (probably 5 miles) and no problems. It's a good project for anyone who's a little bit handy and has a few tools. I'm glad I had my Harbor Freight oscillating multi tool to make the cut in the deck, it wasn't easy to access but an old fashioned coping saw and some patience would have done it.

[Jbreen07]

I highly recommend putting a dial indicator on the new pulley, if it is not as close to perfect as you can get it time will take a toll on the mounting brackets from bad vibrations! A friend of mine learned that the hard way haha

[smokeonthewater]

Make sure and seal up that cut deck w some epoxy too

[scook]

I saw the ones that came with a pulley that you add on and have to set up with a dial gauge - the one I got runs the belt off the existing harmonic balancer. I wasn't looking forward to laying on the deck, messing with the pulley - I would have done it but really liked the simple installation of the Breezeworks kit.

Thanks Smoke - good catch. That had slipped past me - I'll do it.