alternator is NOT charging the house bank???

[centerline]

after all the time I have spent on the boat over the past year and a half, converting all the lights to LED, repairing other peoples wiring FUBAR's, replacing all the batteries and many other necessary and unnecessary tasks, this weekend I learned my engine does NOT charge the house bank... unless the "dual circuit plus" combiner switch is combined....

what I have is...
....an ARS-5 charge regulator wired into the alternator circuit...
....a bluesea ACR to isolate the banks....
....a promariner dual circuit shore power charger with both outputs going directly to the house bank.

so im assuming my alternator output should be connected to the same spot where my shore power charger is connected to, and not directly to the start battery.... but at this time I do NOT know if the shore power charges the start battery or not... I am assuming it should charge the start batt thru the ACR, but this is not confirmed.. and I have not found a good diagram of how it should be properly wired so that I can trace to wires to find out where the issue actually is..

can anyone show me either a diagram or explain it to me... or are my assumptions correct in that all charging sources should be connected directly to the house bank and the blueseaACR will do the rest?...

 

[Sumner]

.... or are my assumptions correct in that all charging sources should be connected directly to the house bank and the blueseaACR will do the rest?...

This is the way I do it.

Have you checked the output (voltage) of the alternator to make sure that it is high enough to trigger the ARC?

Although if the alternator is connected to the house bank then how is it not charging it if it is operating? If I understand right the ARC is there to charge the start battery.

Sumner

==============================

2015 to The Bahamas and back -- I hope

Our Endeavour 37

Our MacGregor 26-S Pages

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

 

[Maine Sail]

or are my assumptions correct in that all charging sources should be connected directly to the house bank and the blueseaACR will do the rest?...

Your assumptions are correct... Now you need to figure out where the alt wire really goes. The ACR should be bi-directional sensing, unless it is an older model....

There are only three wires on the ACR;

Bank #1 Positive
Bank #2 Positive
Negative

If the alt works to charge the start battery, when the switch is set there, something is not wired correctly...

 

[centerline]

im almost sure the alt wires go to the start battery... im not at the boat now but if i recall, when I changed the batteries, I had extra wires on the start batt that was of unknown origin. there didnt seem to be any issues so I didnt bother chasing them at that time.
I will now connect my tracer to these and see where they actually go....

and im not sure what the output of the alternator is but it looks as if it could be OEM. I would assume its 35amp but i will likely never know until its time to replace it.