Wiring and Gauges on Westerbeke 46

[rlopatterson]

I ran into another issue with our once very reliable W46. When starting the engine, the tach takes time to come up. After warm, the volt meter starts to read over charge - pegged. The other gauges flicker when the hour meter kicks.

It just started doing this and thought it might be a bad alternator, so replaced it with the original that bench tested perfect. Still the same issue. Was not actually producing 16 volts, but volt meter did show just a tad under 15, but over the 14.7 I would think would be max, and holding there even after an hour of running.

Have a feeling that a connection is bad or bad wires in the harness. They route under the exhaust manifold, so get pretty hot and 30 years old.

Any ideas of where to go first? Did clean up the trailer type connector that usually causes issues on Westerbeke's, but have not gone further into it yet.