Rough Start Ended Up OK

raybo3

I was all packed up and heading out for the weekend on the Charles River Saturday morning. Started engines and was running fine. Took a walk over to the other side of the docks to talk to someone. Started walking back to my boat with a couple of buddies and smelled something burning. I jokingly said "hope thats not my boat" when I looked over I saw black smoke coming out of my exhaust vents. So I shut off my engines and opened my hatch and found my serpentine belt broke in half. Thought the weekend was gone. What  to do with all that alcohol....LOL. Call my marine mechanic at 10:30am. Spoke to his wife and she said he was in the middle of something hold tight. About 11:30 I see his little work boat pull up to mine, oh great he is here........... He tells me my alternator has seized and that is why the belt broke. There goes the weekend for sure................ Nope he goes back to his shop and I was on the water by 1:00pm and in the Charles about 1:45 and feeling pretty good by 2:30....... Great Weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

rasbury

didn't burn up a water pump?

raybo3

Nope.........

Dream_Inn

That's great news!  hate to ruin a weekend for something simple as just exchanging an alternator and belt.

jme097

Nice. Nothing like an easy fix!

skennelly

Sounds like you have a heck of a mechanic there!

LaRea

One-hour response on a weekend?  I bet that mechanic will see a nice bottle-of-something showing up unannounced in his work boat.  

212rowboat

The alternator going bad by seizing is usually a blessing in disguise. The other way is free spin, and you usually don't find out until the batteries are drained, and especially if you have Faria gauges... the first thing that comes to mind when you get a funky reading is always "stupid faria!!".... 

randy56

Agree with LaRea, that needs a tip, gift card for a dinner for two or something, he saved your weekend.

Cableguy Greg

That's great that he was able to get you up and running so fast. I always keep a spare belt on my boat, but a seized pulley will keep throwing a belt no matter what. I had a power steering pump seize on me at the end of an outing. Fortunately I was able to make it back to the ramp and get back on the trailer.

Black_Diamond

Aside from straight out damage or contamination of the bearings, the #1 killer of an alternator...or any engine belt driven accessory: excessive belt tension.  The calculated L-10 bearing life of those bearings in the alternator is likely 50,000+ hours.

Handymans342

I find that the foreign alternators last a lot longer than domestic

Dream_Inn

I agree BD.  The next thing is the bushings wear out.  I've had to change the out on my old street rod alternator a few times (over a 30 year period - man I'm getting old!)

youstolemybeer

2 hours from broke to fixed. Heck it would have taken me that long just to find the tools I would need.
I see a free pizza in your mechanics future

NavyCTRC

youstolemybeer said:

2 hours from broke to fixed. Heck it would have taken me that long just to find the tools I would need.
I see a free pizza in your mechanics future

  add a 12 pack to the pizza....

Michael T

There are still some honest guys out there!

rasbury

Yes there are, more good than bad.