battery does not charge-alternator not working?

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ewapapiez

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Jul 7, 2009
3
Luck of the Irish 25 Four winds marina
Good morning,
I discovered that on my recently purchased Catalina 25/ 1984, battery would not charge when I plug marina power to the boat outlet. I found a small plug-in charger in one of the drawers. I think that the alternator is bad. How do I test this, and how I repair it?
Regards
Ewa
 
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Forrest15112

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Jan 22, 2008
423
Catalina 30 Mandeville, La.
The alternator is on the engine and should charge your battery when the engine is running. When connected to shore power, you should be using a charger, possibly the one you found in a drawer. The easiest way to test is to get a volt meter and measure the output when it is on. If you don't have a meter, look for blown fuse, tripped breaker, corroded battery terminal, etc. A cheap meter can be purchased at Radio Shack, Harbor Freight, Sears, Walmart, etc for $10-15 or so. It would be very helpful to pinpoint if your charger is working or not. You can check for AC voltage in at the charger which would confirm the charger is getting power. If it is, and there is no DC output to the battery, then the charger has a problem.

You could use the cheap meter to check voltage out when the engine is running and determine if alternator is working. That cheap meter will save you some bread in the future where otherwise you might have to pay someone else to tell you you need a new charger.

Good Luck.
 
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