Thread: Need some boat guys for advice.

Well, my neighbor has a mercruiser 170 3.7l in his boat. He took it out on the lake the other day and the stater took a ****.

He asked me earlier about converting it to an alternator instead of a stater. Mounting it would be no problem (ie: making a bracket and finding the right belt size). But, wiring on this is what will trip me partially. I have done some research in the past hour and have found that I will need a marine specific alternator.

This is the back of the alternator that will be used.



Now, will I just run a new positive cable with the extra wire and put the one end on the bolt towards the top and then splice the smaller lead to the red wire in the picture. Then obviously I just find a switched 12v to splice to the black wire. Then that's it correct?


Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

if this is a inboard, whats the alt have to do with a bad starter?

every thing is marine use only, engines run backwards on boats a lot of the time. so car parts dont always work right.

I know I can't use an auto alternator. It is not protected from the water.

Stator....not starter scotty.

How old is the thing if it uses a 3.7

Ehhh, I would say it is around an 87

Theoretically that should work ive never seen that done most just replace the stator

well apparently if the magnets or whatever in the crank pulley go bad or whatever it is in there, then the stator will just go bad again. An alternator is just an easy way to worry about it again.

my bad. looked like starter if reading fast.

Lol yeahh

Yeah on the inside of the stator there is magnets which make the electricty ive replaced 3 in the past 2 weeks and its been like 3-500 for just the stator

Yeah exactly. It would cost under 100 to swap to an alternator.

something like this maybe?

Ended up using a remanned Delco from work. Three wire setup.

Whoo, boats.

Originally Posted by 02 WS6 TA

Whoo, boats.

Boats and hoes

One breeds another.