Batteries not charging

[Analgesic]

Launch day today with brand new starting battery and 4 new golf cart batteries from Sam's Club.  I have a Heart Invertor/Charger with a Link 2000 monitor.  I motored the 90 minutes from launch ramp to mooring.  On the way, I noticed that the voltage on battery bank 2 (house) read only 12.45 volts and bank 1 (starter) read 11.90.  Last year everything read > 13 volts whenever engine was on.  I had charged everything on the hard by AC with good readings before launching.  The Link read 86 Amps with engine running with the battery switch on 2 (which I assume means the alternator is not dead) but only 2 Amps when on 1.   An E 02 code was flashing referring to low battery, not charging.  I am looking for any suggestions for trouble shooting this.  I already checked and cleaned every terminal I could find.  A friend suggested there might be a dead fuse -anyone know if this is true and where I might look?  Thanks for any help
Brian McPhillips

[Ron Hill]

Ana : You might try asking the Heart people about your charging question !?!  They are the experts. 

[waterdog]

Brian, if you are getting 86 A into your house bank at only 12.45V, your alternator is feeding a highly discharged battery bank.   When you said you had good readings on shore was that when you were still plugged into shore power?     Trust your link but verify with your multimeter.   Measure the actual voltage at the battery terminals and at the alternator.   They should be damn close and they should agree with your link.   I would be highly suspicious that you have a bad connection (or a cable completely left off from your battery).   I don't think your house batteries got charged.   If they did, you may have bad batteries.   I would trace the actual wire from your charger and verify with your own eyes that it did get connected.   

Does your alternator feed your house and start banks through the 1 / 2 / both switch?    If it does and your connections were all good, you should also be getting better than 11.9 on your start when you switch to 1 with the engine running.   Somehow your alternator is not feeding your start battery - huge voltage drop?   I think again a bad connection.   Check the actual voltage measured at the battery with your multimeter.  If it's only putting in 2A, maybe the battery is fully charged and you've got a bad connection going back to your link from your start bank.  When you switch to both, do you get the same voltage on house and start banks as measured by the link?    If no, cut the terminals off all your link cables and crimp/solder and heat shrink on new ones!

When you say you had good readings on shore, what were they?  Were they still good after you disconnected the shore power cable?     

You must have an external regulator with the big alternator.   i would pull the manual and identify each of the terminals and measure the voltages to see if they all are what they should be.  If your not sure, tell us what they are and what the readings are, engine running and engine off.    You likely also have fuses near your batteries for the sense wires that return to your regulator and charger.    You will want to check these.   

A few things to try...

[Analgesic]

Thanks for the great advice.  Today  I spent a lot of hours on the boat in search of a mistaken connection, blown fuse, etc, didn't find anything that simple.  I then disconnected the house battery which made the Link go off.  I started the engine and with my multimeter on the two posts of the alternator, it read 0.  I am a rank amateur at electronics but I assume this means the alternator is dead.  The "86" reading on the Link with Amps button  pushed with engine  running and battery switch on 2 (House) threw me off-I assumed this meant 86 A was coming from alternator to  bank 2 but voltage never rose.  Meanwhile at the dock on AC in Charge mode today, both 1 and 2 went up to the 14 V range.  Am I right that I just need a new alternator?
Brian

[Stu Jackson]

Or you simply have a loose wire at the back of the alternator.  My regulator ground wire came off on a cruise this weekend.  No alternator output.  Fixed wire, things are back to fine.

With the Link 2000 your HOUSE bank MUST be the #1 for the Link and the Freedom.  Read about F11 in the manual. I'll help you out with this once you get to it.

[Steve Sayian]

Brian,

If you think your alternator is bad, you can take it to A1 Battery in Quincy and they'll test it for $5.00. 

I replaced my Mando alternator last year for $125.00 from them.

Steve

[Stu Jackson]

You should also read this about your Link 2000:  http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4922.0.html

[Analgesic]

New issue with this old problem-my alternator turned out to be broken, fixed in 1 day at A-1 Battery in Quincy (thanks Steve!) and batteries all charging again.  I adjusted the settings on my Link 2000 to correct the "Gotcha" factor as recommended.  Now, however, with the engine on, the House batteries  (#2) rise to an appropriate 13 + volts but the charging battery (#1) shows a scary rise to 15.8 volts.   Meanwhile the Lo Bat message flashes which makes no sense.  After a week on the mooring, both batteries read a respectable 12.6 V.  I did put in a tech question to Xantrex with the original problem, received a reference # for my question but never received a reply.  I wonder if anyone understands what is going on.  I wonder if somehow the Heart Invertor/Charger or Link is set up wrong causing overcharging and possibly dangerous battery gassing.  On our Summer cruise we could run the engine for hours and I want to avoid an explosive situation. 
Brian

[Stu Jackson]

The house bank needs to #1, per F11, for the Link to properly control the Freedom charger.  This is separate from the Gotcha algorithm parameter modification.

A high voltage on a battery usually indicates it is cooked.  Have you checked the water level, or is it "maintenance free?"

Neither the Freedom nor the Link can cook your batteries (unless the Freedom itself is fried, which is rare).  

If you're running the engine for hours during your summer cruise, how is your alternator output wired?  Have you read this?  http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,4949.0.html  Usually with the single output of the Freedom you should have already addressed the single alternator output, too.  We need to know more about how you are wired.