Boat Wiring Is Not Car Wiring
I had a buddy that was an auto parts person. He worked in a parts store and a Ford dealership, and he had many ship owners came in searching for parts for their boats, which can be foolish because automobile parts are for automobiles. Boat components are for ships.
It always began the same way: The clients would complain about just how much the MerCruiser trader needed for whatever it was that they were searching for.
Any original or replacement alternator for a marine engine is required to have ignition protection. Well, that was fine for points or spark plugs or a water pump, but for everything else, all bets were off.
The lesson was that boat wiring in not automobile wiring. I am bringing this up again because I've heard and seen of more cases lately where non-marine starters and alternators are set up in ships. This is dangerous. Why? Since if you buy an automotive alternator or some other electrical appliance that is not ignition-protected, you run the risk of blowing off your ship. Without ignition security, if for any reason you've got an explosive air/fuel-vapor mixture on your engine compartment, and there is a flicker when you crank over that engine, it is going to spark the surrounding atmosphere.
Marine starters and alternators are ignition-protected, which means they do not allow a spark to be emitted in the device. And that is going to keep you and the folks around you out of having a very bad day.
As you click through the pages of Wavetech Powersports, and more importantly, as you go outside to scrutinize potential used boats, be aware there are owners out there who are either too cheap or too ignorant to put in secure gear -- and you really don't want to purchase ships they've owned.
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