Boat is a 86 cat 36 so it has had a few monkeys that have worked on things.
So it's time to redo the battery cables
it appears that some one didn't use tinned cables corrosion problems.
and plan to set it up for lithium house and lead acid starting only battery
My problem is I'm not sure what this is in the pictures, is it a battery isolator or something else
third one is the back of alternator
Hi Larry,
Sorry I can't help on the ID of that part.
But on another related matter, your choice of batteries is important. Lithium batteries and Lead Acid batteries have different charging voltages. Even different manufacturers have different voltages. A wet cell Lead Acid battery may be different from an AGM or Lithium battery. That will affect the charging device, whether that is the alternator w/wo controller, straight battery charger or an inverter/charger. Batteries are charged in two states. The first, absorption, is the voltage at which the battery is charged. The second, float, is the voltage at which a charged battery is maintained. The Equalization stage is used sparingly to bring a worn out battery back up to snuff.
I have included a page from my inverter/charger to illustrate the differ voltages and different manufacturers. So your challenge is to select the correct battery charger combination. I my case, I have 3 battery banks: Starter, House and Auxiliary. My House and Auxiliary banks consist of two each 12vdc 125amp-hour series 31 Lifeline Deep Cycle Batteries. My Starter is a 12vdc 90 amp-hour series 27 Lifeline Starting Battery. All are AGM type. As all charge at the same voltage it was easy to set the Inverter charger and my solar panel battery charge controller.
Good luck on your endeavors,
Lou Bruska
Sojourn
1985 C-36 Mk-I TR #495
Eldean Shipyard
Lake Macatawa (Holland, MI) Lake Michigan
Rallyback@comcast.net
Yes different change profile is the easy part dc to dc charger will handle that.
the hard part is figuring out what is there now.
dedicated starter battery, and dedicated house will solve many issues I have now.
solar is also in the future .
one of my goals is to get chargers an such things out of the portt cockpit locker.
and shorter wire runs.
Larry,
I have 3 batteries in the seat locker in front of the Nav. station. the Inverter charger is in the seat back storage immediately above the batteries. The second set of batteries is under the outboard dinette seat. I helps move some of the to the other side of the boat.
Lou Bruska
Sojourn
1985 C-36 Mk-I TR #495
Eldean Shipyard
Lake Macatawa (Holland, MI) Lake Michigan
Rallyback@comcast.net
I'll take a stab at this. The black piece sticking out a bit looks just like a transformer. From my observation of the photo you have three wires going to it. One from the alternator, one going to the battery and one ground. It's an alternator noise suppressor. I was wrong once back in 1956 but later found out I was just a simple mistaken. Whatever it is, I'd get rid of it.
2003 Catalina 36
It is a voltage regulator
Durk Nijdam
S/V "SILER"
Catalina 36MKII - 2001 / hullnr. 2013
Stavoren - Holland
Initially I thought it might a voltage regulator too. But the alternator has a voltage regulator on it. Why would there be two?
2003 Catalina 36
Kind of ruled out a regulator given it's on the alternator,
I am assuming that the alternator actually chargers.
previous owner was a invoice keeper, but no indication from that
appears to be at least pre 2009