I have a long, sad, story to relate. In Fall of 2007, we were on a caravan in Atlantic Canada, when I noticed my house batteries were not getting charged, then that my chassis batteries were also not getting charged, so I had my wife start the generator so we could get to somewhere to get repairs. I found a very well rated truck service facility in New Brunswick, who I called to warn them we were coming. I told them I had a 130 amp Leece Neville alternator, so they told me they could give me a 165 amp one at a good price, so I said to go ahead and get one ready for me. I discovered, later, that the new alternator was a Delco, not a Leece Neville. When we arrived they started to work on my coach, but they spent over four labor hours installing the part. The service manager was nice enough to eat some of these charges because he believed it should have taken one hour at most. We picked up out coach and proceeded to our campground, but we forgot to turn on the Boost switch so the chassis batteries would get charged. Some days later, when we were going to leave, we found that the chassis batteries were dead, so we turned on the generator for about a half-hour and tried again to start with success. My wife, who is the driver, noticed that the volt meters were reading zero, so we concluded that the service center had miswired the alternator, so we found a truck repair place outside of Boston, stayed the night and had them diagnose the problem. After spending another four hours of labor, they told me that they were getting the proper voltage on the generator side of the battery isolator, but low voltage on the other side, so I concluded that I would have to replace the isolator and we continued home, stopping to run the generator to keep the batteries charged from time to time. I ordered and received a new 200 amp isolator, and took my coach to a third service center, US Coach in Berlin, NJ, and had them replace the isolator, new batteries and a number of other unrelated things. Again, they had no end of problems getting things to work and even had to call Delco, who built the alternator, for help rewiring it correctly. They pronounced it good and we went on our way. We did notice, however, that the dash voltage meters were only reading 12 volts, but we experienced no trouble starting. We, however, have kept the coach on shore power for the last few months. I fear our problems are not behind us, because of the low voltage readings. My wife took the coach out a week ago and said the voltage read high at first, but dropped to 12 volts shortly afterwards. Is there any way I can get my Delco alternator to work properly, or will I have to buy a Leece Neville to finally repair my problem. Does anyone out there have a suggestion?
