On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 12:29:40 -0700, "Rod McInnis"
wrote:

I will be anchoring out this weekend and will use the opportunity to check
the charging system out. I suspect that the port motor is very weak in
charging but it was hard to tell because when I tested it the battery was
fully charged. After being anchored out for a day the battery should be
sufficiently discharged that I can better see the charge/voltage levels.

A common outboard tach pulse source is from the output
of the alternator (pre-rectifier). If you can come up
with a portable oscilloscope, you might try comparing
various points on the port and stbd motors to see
what's different. I always liked diagnostics on stereo
systems with one bad channel -- I had a good version
to compare with the bad. Even a decent volt meter should
give you some clues as to where to start.