any advice

[MADMACAM]

could anyone give me any advice went out on boat 2nite and all of a sudden smoke coming from wiring looked and the dial that normally shows 3-5 amps was showing 30 so i think something to do with alternater the more revs on the engine the higher the amps went and the wire got red hot did not get fishing gutted

thanks
les

[mark]

hard to say where to start, I\'d guess its somewhere in the alternator main circuit as if it were elsewhere it would be popping fuses (unless you\'ve got armoured 120A fuses for the radio!)

drawing 30A at 12V is less than half an ohm of resitance, so a dead short somewheredisconenct everything, and start reconecting bit by bit till you hit the short I suppose,

if I had to point a finfer I\'d look towards the rectifier that magics the bouncy lectrickery to straight line electrickery (ac to DC) might be part oif the alternator external, if you\'ve got a multimeter check the resistance across the big fat diodes in the recifier, should be very very high in one direction (millions/meg) and low in t\'other

I could also be skwawking out me jacksie though, but its where I\'d start

alternatively, install 1 40 gallon water tank, 3 radiators and a bath and put the immersion coil in line with the alternator

[Edited on 27/6/2005 by mark]

[DaveMason]

I had a simlar problem on poacher , my voltage increased with the revs . Same as mark said , it was the rectifier in the alternator . If it\'s an external one change it , mine was inside and I needed a new unit .

[John]

So more or less you will be putting out 21v instead of 13.8v get it sorted or you will fry your batterys and other 12v stuff