Alternator mounting bracket mod

[Stu Jackson]

Mark,

Thanks, great link.

It sure looks like they used the housing as an excuse for the "enhancement."

Stu

 

[mherrcat]

I received my alternator mounting bracket mod kit today and must say that I am considerably less than impressed with the fabrication quality. The plate that attaches to the front of the engine and the plate that attaches to the side of the exhaust manifold are almost 1/4" out of square. The tabs that hold the upper end of the alternator are also not square/parallel to each other. I will be calling Catalina Direct tomorrow morning to complain. This is not what I expected for almost $200.



I could easily take measurements from this and probably have it made better locally and for less.

 

[mherrcat]

Feels good to know you're not crazy...

Just got a call from Catalina Direct regarding the problem I had with the M18/M25 alternator mounting bracket kit.

Turns out the whole production run that my bracket came from was fabricated incorrectly. Catalina Direct called their supplier who said, "It's probably not that critical." Not satisfied, they contacted the manufacturer who said it was indeed critical.

Don't have a lead time on getting the replacement but at least it will be newly fabricated. Hope it's right!

Props to Catalina Direct!

 

[mherrcat]

More good news...

Got a second call from Catalina Direct. Westerbeke is going to take a bracket off of a new engine and send that so I don't have to wait for more brackets to be made.

Woo Hoo!

 

[mherrcat]

...and now the bad news...

Turns out the bracket off of the new engine is not square either. So after saying the bracket is supposed to be square, Westerbeke seems to have been installing the out of square brackets on the new engines.

Now I am waiting to see if they are going to do another production run of brackets and try to make them right. But there is no way of knowing when that will happen.

With all the talk of making sure that the engine pulley and the alternator pulley need to be aligned and square to each other to avoid premature belt wear, it seems that installing an alternator mounting bracket that may put the alternator out of position isn't the best idea...