Westerbeke generator problems

C

crosscr

Member
Jun 2, 2008
37
St Thomas, USVI
Boat Info
2000 340 Sundancer
Engines
454 Horizons
I have a Westerbeke 4.5kw bcgb generator that has no power output. I have checked all windings. The stator winding checks perfect. Resistance is what my manual states it should be. No continuity to ground or the other windings. The rotor windings also check good. I replaced the diodes even though the originals checked good. The exciter windings check ok but their resistance is a bit low. Manual says they should be 1.8 ohms, I am reading around 1.2 ohms. I have installed a new capacitor in the exciter circuit. I can flash the generator with 12Vdc on the excitor winding and get 20 -22volts from the generator. The manual says that this is normal and I should check the capacictor. I have 23 years experience as an industrial electrical/electronic technician but this has got me kinda stumped right now and thinking that maybe the rotor has lost its magnetism. Is this possible and if so how do I get it back. Thanks
 
Crosser i am having the same problem with 7.2 westerBeke can I separate it in boat or did you have to pull the whole gen out the boat. Could please let me know what you find with yours
 
I had that same problem..... I called the Westerbeke dealer and they came right out and fixed it. Some part had gone bad and they knew exactly what it was.
 
Pack66Dad said:
I had that same problem..... I called the Westerbeke dealer and they came right out and fixed it. Some part had gone bad and they knew exactly what it was.
Click to expand...

Speaking for myself, bu tin the comment above, for me, myself it would be nice to know a ballpark figure of what the cost was, I had an issue, which turned out to be what I originally stated, capacitors, but where the mechanic unsoldered a diode to check, but did not resolder the diode back into place, but installed new capacitors and now for sure it still did not work, (5 hours diagnostcs) Then over 15 hours to pull the generator out. After they get the the generator pulled, they find the non-connected diode, reconnect it and load test generator and all is fine. The problem was the caps like I originally stated, So 20 hours of labor @ $85.00 per hour , plus the cost of two caps and it is fixed. They pulled it to send in the rotor/stator

So yes a ball park figure to me would be quite helpful,

Thanks
 
Pseudomind said:
Speaking for myself, bu tin the comment above, for me, myself it would be nice to know a ballpark figure of what the cost was, I had an issue, which turned out to be what I originally stated, capacitors, but where the mechanic unsoldered a diode to check, but did not resolder the diode back into place, but installed new capacitors and now for sure it still did not work, (5 hours diagnostcs) Then over 15 hours to pull the generator out. After they get the the generator pulled, they find the non-connected diode, reconnect it and load test generator and all is fine. The problem was the caps like I originally stated, So 20 hours of labor @ $85.00 per hour , plus the cost of two caps and it is fixed. They pulled it to send in the rotor/stator

So yes a ball park figure to me would be quite helpful,

Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't remember the exact number but it was around $600.00...... he also fixed a problem I didn't even know I had while he was there. It starts twice as fast now. Over all I'm very happy with the service and the price.
 
Pseudomind

What was the symptoms when the capacitors needed replacing?
 
dc380 said:
Pseudomind

What was the symptoms when the capacitors needed replacing?
Click to expand...

If the cap is bad you have no output. The manual shows a test procedure for checking the exciter circuit(which the cap is part of). If you flash the exciter windings with 12vdc and measure the generator output then compare that to what is in the manual you can determine if you cap is bad or not. Or you can just measure the cap with a capacitance meter.
 
ppwhite said:
Crosser i am having the same problem with 7.2 westerBeke can I separate it in boat or did you have to pull the whole gen out the boat. Could please let me know what you find with yours
Click to expand...

It's hard to say, I have never worked on a 7.2kw. I know you can separate the back end of a 4.5kw and remove it while it is in the boat.
 
crosscr said:
If the cap is bad you have no output. The manual shows a test procedure for checking the exciter circuit(which the cap is part of). If you flash the exciter windings with 12vdc and measure the generator output then compare that to what is in the manual you can determine if you cap is bad or not. Or you can just measure the cap with a capacitance meter.
Click to expand...

Thanks, so far so good, I have over 600 hours and it runs fine. But it's good to know what can go wrong.
 
dc380 said:
Pseudomind

What was the symptoms when the capacitors needed replacing?
Click to expand...


Maximum output voltage 100 VDC, moving to pins 8, then 9 made no difference, it was already on pin 7. There is a procedure in the manual. The marina did not have a good cap on hand so went through the other testing procedures, which involves de-soldering the diodes to test if their bias is still good. Well they did not solder one back, it was disconnected , they received a new cap. put it in, bu twith one half of the bridging diodes disconnected , determined it was the rotor/stator package. Luckily, if you can call it luck, they found the diode disconnected after pulling the generator, wanted to charge 10 hours labor, but we had some heart to heart. The final bill was in couple thousand neighborhood o what should have easily been maybe one to two hours labor and two caps for around $260.00. TO top it all off I had sent the mechanic the procedures to check the caps before this all started.

So what Pack is mentioning may of well have been a charge to replace two caps, plus labor.
 
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