We have a Northshore 27 with a Bukh DV10 LSME
The boat has not been used much over the past few years and it has been inundated with water twice
First time it was 'fixed' by a local marine guy
This time I think I have to cop it and do it myself

It seems to have a magneto instead of an alternator
Anyone know anything about these?
Can I disconnect and use solar / fix the magneto / install an alternator?

This is just one of the many things I have to sort out to get this all going again
Flywheel turns but haven;t looked inside yet
LInkages and various things are showing corrosion and have to be replaced

Ho hum

Magneto or generator?
Either way you will be much better off with a modern alternator and rectifier.

I will use simplified terms here.

A magneto is usually used in (older) gasoline engines to provide the source of the electricity for the spark.
A generator also produces electricity, but for charging the battery and supplying power to other systems like lights etc,
A generator is less efficient at producing direct current (DC) electricity than an alternator.
That means it will take more power from your engine and produce less electricity.

All modern engines run alternators.
This generates an alternating current (AC) which is fed into a rectifier and then become direct current (DC) which will charge the battery and supply power to other systems like lights etc.

If the generator has been submerged it is probably dead.
Start searching the web for suitable (auto) replacement alternators.
That will be the cheapest and most effective way of dealing with this.
Doing away with the alternator and relying on solar doesn't make sense.
Your best bet is solar AND the alternator.

gary

A bit more.
Here is a site selling a standard Bukh alternator.
It is a French Marchal I think.
www.startermotoralternators.co.uk/products/bukh-dv10-dv20-dv24-dv36-dv48-70-amp-alternator
If you can find out what amperage yours is I reckon you can go down to your local Japanese car wreckers and pick up a replacement Japanese unit from any small car . I mean small.


Manual available here.
file:///C:/Users/PCUser/Downloads/dv10.pdf
gary

Thanks Gary
Wasn't expecting such a swift reply!

goatbeater,

I hope you don't end up in the same place as me, after my struggles with a Bukh DV10 LME (the LME is a shaft-drive and the LMSE is the sail drive version). If you PM me, I could pass on your details to the new owner (in Brisbane), who probably still has the near-new exhaust elbow, and thermostat I bought at Christmas, and the alternator and mounting arm and at the manuals. He said he will fit a new engine, so the old Bukh is now redundant. The exhaust elbows are now almost impossible to find. For spare parts, I found Andy Winter at the Engine Room in Auckland, NZ, most knowledgeable and helpful (www.nzmarine.com/directory/business/the-engine-room).

I hope you succeed in repairing your Bukh, but you should be aware of the likely costs and hassle associated with an old and now rare engine. For example, the gasket kit is about $700, the exhaust elbow $650 (if you can find one).

My story ended with a crack in the flywheel, which is a 16kg lump of iron held on with a taper, taper-key and nut. (Good luck in sourcing a taper key, if you need a new one). My circumstances at home meant I could not spend the time continuing to attempt to fix things, so I sold the boat. I will get back on the water, but with a boat that does more sailing than fixing.

My Bukh had an alternator attached. The generator was unused. I had toyed with the idea of reconnecting the generator, but never got around to it. The problem with the alternator was that it relied on a belt attached to the flywheel, which meant you could not attach a pull-rope to hand-crank the engine, if ever you needed to. You would need to hand-start the engine to turn the alternator to charge the batteries but, then, you'd need to stop the engine to reconnect the belt, and you would not be able to re-start the engine because the batteries would be flat, so you'd have to take the belt off to hand-crank it. And so on. Maybe there is a smarter way to connect the belt to the motor, or even to hand-crank it.

Just a thought, but the generator is just iron and copper, so it might have survived a dunking. You'd probably need to replace the rectifiers, though.

For more information, see the last entry in my blog here theboattinkerer.blogspot.com/2022/08/episode-40-conceding-defeat.html