Balmar Serpentine Conversion Kit on a Westerbeke 71C

[michaeld]

The engine was installed by the previous owner in 2006. Conversion to a 120A alternator is going slow. Looking for others with experience. Westerbeke drawings are of insufficient detail. The Aluminum Dual V-Belt pulley on the crank shaft is being stubborn. It's currently being attacked by Liquid Wrench. How did you remove it?

[michaeld]

Follow up on this for those that may be interested. First thing to note is that neither Balmar nor Westerbeke provided any support. Balmar said they would get back to me. Westerbeke never returned my call. Nevertheless, I pressed on with this project.

The instructions that come with the serpentine pulley kit from Balmar states the the crankshaft pulley slips over the existing pulley. That is not the case with the Westerbeke 71C. Upon close examination, I discovered that the Dual V-Belt pulley is pressed onto and bolted to the crankshaft pulley. Liquid Wrench and a $20 puller (thank you Harbor Freight) and I was back in business.

At this point I have the Balmar serpentine crankshaft and fresh water pump pulleys installed. Of course, that required a trip to my local hardware store to buy suitable metric bolts to install both. The socket head cap screws included with the kit for the fresh water pulley were the wrong diameter, and the socket head cap screws for the crank shaft pulley were too short.

If you attempt a project similar to this, be certain that you take care installing the crank shaft serpentine pulley. It does not readily fit over the lip of the steel V-Belt pulley. Since there is no way to press it on, carefully tighten the six bolts in a pattern to keep it true. I thought everything was going well until it would not go any further, and I ended up having to pull it and start over.

Tomorrow is another day, and I hope to get the alternator mounted, and the belts installed. Next will be the ARS-5 regulator. A quick review of the instructions appears to be fairly straight forward, but once again if anyone reading this has first hand experience your comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

[michaeld]

The adventure continues, albeit at a snails pace. I finally have the Balmar alternator mounted and the belts installed and tensioned. Next is hooking up the Balmar harness, integrating the Westerbeke harness for the control panel, and programming the ARS-5. So far so good, but at this pace it will be a few more days before I wrap this project up. I try not to work past noon. I'm in south Florida and it is sweltering below by midday. There is not enough beer to keep me hydrated.

[AKA-None]

Nice looking

[michaeld]

For your reference, the serpentine crank shaft pulley didn't fit. It was probably .001" or .002" too small. I ended up hand sanding the inside with Emery cloth to get it to finally fit. Neither Balmar nor Westerbeke were any help. The ARS-5 harness connector was defective, so I McGivered the blue & white wire connectors. I found that the terminology in the alternator instructions to not match well with the ARS-5 instructions, but I finally figured it all out. So far so good.

[Maine Sail]

Who was your Balmar dealer?

[michaeld]

I sourced it locally here in Fort Lauderdale.

[bstreep]

We are in the middle of a Balmar belt conversion and alternator upgrade on our Yanmar 4JH. Plan on 10X the time that you originally think to do this project. On our boat, it's especially difficult, as it's hard to get to the front of our engine. Had to take out the water heater (and find that it's about at end-of-life, not gonna put it back in) to get to the crank. BE CAREFUL with any trial fits. Getting the pulleys back off is not easy!

I had to remove the water pump bolts. Used an impact drill (not enough clearance for an impact wrench) and several other ideas. What worked was a breaker bar and a huge vice grip, that I held the pulley with.

We also had bolt size problems. We had to cut down the bolts for the crank. Even though this kit was MADE for the 4JH.

We MAY have a clearance problem for the belt on the right side of the engine. There's an access plate that might rub on the belt. We'll have to see. The Balmar solution? $250 for a lousy pulley that you then have to figure out where to mount.

We bought ours thru Peter Kennedy (PKYS). He was good, but really don't look at these "kits" as all inclusive, plug and play drop ins. They aren't. I think I was expecting more? Anyway.

Unfortunately (yeah, right!) we'll have to postpone the rest of the project until December, as we are flying to French Polynesia for 5 weeks! A 2 week charter sandwiched between some island hopping.

[smac999]

I did one a few weeks ago on a yanmar. 4jh3e

Everything fit. Pulleys, alt. Mc614 reg done in a day. The harmonic balancer thing in front threw me off at the beginning. But the new pulley fit perfectly in between it. Over the factory pulley.