>  Sounds like you are getting overly complicated.
>

I thought my mechanical solution was simpler than an electronic one.

 Why bother taking the belt off?  .Murphy's law says  if you have an engine
> failure it wil lbe the one with the disconnected belt.
>

My thought was to replace the belt with a smaller one -- not to totally
disconnect it.

>
> If you have a properly  installed alternator and  your system is balanced,
> it should run for several years  with liteel attention needed.
>

If I thought my system was totally balanced, I wouldn't consider "disabling"
one of the alternators.

>
> But if you have installed an oversize alternator  and still drive the water
> pump with the same belt; of course you wil lhave trouble.
> I always recommend that  you leave the OEM alternator in place for charging
> the start battery  independently.
>

Each of the water pumps has its own belt.

>
> The new high output alternator is wired seperately to your house bank.  A
> double shive pulley is made up that bolts to the front crankshaft pulley. In
> most cases thes pulleys are already drilled and tapped for a PTO. Yanmar and
> Kubota blocks are universal utlity  ingines used in thousands of
> applications.  They are intended for power take of at both ends of the crank
> shaft.  sometimes you can even buy  th eright pulley from an industrial
> engine supplier. It isn't rocket science.
> You can (unload) disable any alternator with an external regulator simply
> by disconnecting the field circuit. That immediately  reduces the loading on
> belt and to a lesser extent the bearings. Sealed bearings in the alterantor
> wil last a long time. Many years for most boat applications.If you are not
> using the water pump belt to also drive the alternator, yo udon't have any
> problems to deal with.
>

That may be the best solution -- if I can figure out how to "disconnect the
field circuit."  Maybe the manual for my regulator will enlighten me here.

Thanks again for your help.

Phil

> regards
> Arild
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of *Philip R. McGovern
> *Sent:* Tuesday, June 03, 2008 12:02 PM
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Subject:* Re: [Liveaboard] Fanbelt dust
>
> Arild:
>
> Thanks for the good advice.  I should have thought of checking Balmar's
> website myself.  Duh!!!  As soon as I get back to the boat, I'll find out
> what sort of regulator I have and go from there.
>
> Since we nearly always run both engines, it also occurred to me to just
> disconnect one of the alternators by just taking it off the belt (and
> replacing the belt with one having a smaller diameter, of course).  To even
> out the wear on the alternators, I could alternate this setup from one
> engine to the other every year or so.  Any thoughts?  Thanks again.
>
> Phil McGovern
> s/v Sunshine
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 11:02 PM, Arild Jensen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>> *From:** *Philip R. McGovern
>>
>> How did you reduce the amp output of your Balmar?  Is it a setting on the
>> alternator itself or something else?  I am running two Balmar 100 amp
>> alternators and I hardly ever need all of their output.  I'd rather save the
>> fuel (or increase the RPM;s) if there's an easy way to back them off a
>> little.
>>
>> REPLY
>> Its done with the amp manager adjustment on the regulator.  The exact
>> process is described in the documantation included with the regulator.
>> If yo uhave lost o rmisplaced the installation / instruction manual  its
>> availabel for download  from www.balmar.net
>>
>> Arild
>>
>>
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>
>
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