Balmar AR5

[jjbaxter]

All of a sudden!! The charging amps go from something to nothing and back and forth. Each charge response is different. on-off. on-off
Can anyone explain what is going on

Jonathan

[Maine Sail]

I had two ARS-4's and one ARS-5 fail and one of them cut in and out like you describe before it finally gave up the ghost. The others just quit altogether.

Check all your connections first, the belt and if all checks out call Balmar and see what they have to say. Hopefully it's under warranty. Mine all seemed to fail just out of warranty.

A couple of guys on different forums seem to think that the heat in the engine compartment is a contributing factor with these failures. One guy up here in Maine relocated his replacement to outside the engine room and so far as I know his replacement is still working..

Good luck and just know if it's a failure, and Balmar tries to deny any problems with these regulators, you'll know they are not being honest with you...

It may not be a failure mode so do go through a good trouble shooting process..

[camaraderie]

I agree with Halekai that the first step is diagnosis. The diagnosis procedure is at Page64-troubleshooting
Once you know the problem is not bad connections or the alternator...then you can deal with either the warranty or the retailer that sold it to you. WestMarine is good about swapping them out here but I'm not sure what your options are in Bermuda except to deal with Balmar Tech/Warranty support. Let us know how you make out.

[jjbaxter]

Thanks all.

I was hoping for a quick fix response, But I must have sold my soul to the tech.Gods. I know temp is not the problem so I will check the diagnostics again. Failing which, I will contact my master provider "West Marine."

I sometimes feel I should have left well enough alone and stuck with what worked and I understood. The one-Two-Both switch