OK, a little background before we get to the meat of the subject:
I recently bought this bought this boat in the beginning of November. It's been re-powered with a Yanmar 4JH5E. The hour meter shows 577 hours on it, but I've never seen it advance or seen the tachometer work. The engine logs say the alternator was replaced with a Hitachi unit with no tach signal wire in 2018 (as well as the oil changed then also). I changed the oil. The engine has been converted to a serpentine belt system, which is fine, but the back of the alternator looks like this:
My guess is they wanted the 80 amp alternator and wound up getting one without the "P" lead, so they just went without hooking up the orange signal wire. I kind of like the idea of having a working tach and hour meter, so I'm left with a couple of options.
I can:
1- Bring my soldering kit with me on the next trip and install a "P" lead on one of the legs of the stator windings.
2- Procure an alternator with an actual "P" lead already installed, and save the the old one as a spare.
I'm leaning towards #2, but I'm interested in hearing about any thoughts or experience any of you may have.