Westerbeke Rant

K

kdumph

New Member
Dec 17, 2010
98
LA
Boat Info
87 410AC
Engines
454 merks
How are these folks still in business? 117 dollars for 4 spark plug wires? I can buy a crimping tool, boots, connectors, and an entire spool of wire for this price. I wont even go into some of the other parts and associated prices that go with Westerbeke. I remember them being expensive, but thats outrageous. If this Genset fails it will be replaced with a different manufacture.
 
you've got to play the game - find out the application and purchase your parts from the outside vendor - westerbeke doesn't really make anything they just paint/relabel/repackage existing stuff - things like oil filters, plugs, wires, belts, etc are usually available much cheaper. If you absolutly need westerbeke parts try CARP in Grant, Florida - they are the cheapest Hanson in marblehead seems to be the most expensive
 
Found the 5kw BCG raw water impeller is a Johnson pump #09-808b-1 on ebay instead of $50
 
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That's across the board with any Genny maker. I intend to start no fights here. Kohler uses Honda engines. I can get a Honda 5kW Gennie for $2K that has powered my house for days on end after hurricane outages. The same 5kW is going to cost me close to $10K because it's marinized and USCG approved. I for one am not buying it. Just how many systems did they sell at a loss amortizing the R&D and certification costs. It doesn't make sense.

The plug wires you can make yourself much cheaper. The cap and rotor AFAIK you (we) are screwed so far. As for plugs, here's a start;


for example


Westerbeke Spark Plug P/N 43071
cross references to:
JHW33805
MMD43071
NGKBPR5ES

http://www.marinepartssource.com/index.asp

Cross reference the Westerbeke P/N of your gennie to the substitute part number. Then go to NAPA and get the brand you want. I called Denso who were very helpful when I talked to them last year. It's painful, but there is a way around Westerbeke.

Again, no fights intended. If Honda or Yahama came out with a legit USCG approved gennie for about a grand more than their portable that was a plug and play operation, you would see the other brands prices drop like bricks.
 
My Kohler gen is a Kawasaki engine, (2007) the gen on my 320 was a " westerbeke " I'd like to call it something else. Talk about finicky. Hated it and it only had 50 or so hrs on it when we traded the boat in, I buy all of my maint stuff online too .
 
My 320DA had Koehler 5KW genny. With somewhere over 300hrs I had no complaints about. It worked like a charm, but fired up always when cold on a 2nd attempt.
 
Had Westerbekes on our last 4 boats, never an issue, always bought maintainance parts any where but Westerbeke. For the most part they are bullet proof
 
I'd much rather have a Westerbeke than the Kohler on my boat. If you we're closer and your boat was newer I'd trade you in a heartbeat. A
 
Carver370 said:
I'd much rather have a Westerbeke than the Kohler on my boat. If you we're closer and your boat was newer I'd trade you in a heartbeat. A
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Like my WB as well quiet and reliable.
 
Well I found all the parts I needed for about 50 bucks. Wires, plugs, and a new ignition coil. Tad nervous about the coil, but then again iv interchanged them on plenty of 4cyl cars before. What would make the WB so precious that it requires a 200 ignition coil compared to a 30 dollar one? You can pick up performance coils for under 100?

DPmulvey, quick question about cap and rotor. You say were screwed, but looking at mine today did not look like a WB part. Had the Mitsubishi symbol on it?
 
As Ididnotdoit says, all westerbeke did for our vintage is assemble a bunch of standard parts, paint them red and put a huge pricetag on it. Play the game. so far I have done the following for little money:

After market stock ignition wires (my engine is a 1988 3 cylinder Daihatsu,Nissan,Citroen)
Aftermarket sierra universal raw water pump
Daihatsu timing belt ($8.00 US plus shipping from the UK)
Daihatsu timing belt adjuster
$ 5.00 governor pulley (graingers) with undersize hole drilled to shaft size
Universal fuel pump
Cross matched oil filter
Daihatsu exhaust manifold gasket
Added on 60 amp marine alternator
Standard brand points, rotor and cap (maybe $ 25.00 total cost)
Aftermarket front oil seal.
Off the self generator capacitors from ebay (about $ 40 each)

Probably the only thing I may have trouble getting will be an exhaust manifold and the matching red paint.
 
I'm with Happy Hour. I've never HAD to source a part from Westerbeke. They prison rape you on prices. To anyone that doesn't like Westerbeke's, I have 2800 hours on mine, and it starts immediately and always carries a full load when required. It's a fantastic generator.
 
I changed out my Kohler with a Westerbeke only for the noise issue. The Kohler runs at 3600 RPM and the Westerbeke runs at 1800 RPM's With the AC on you cannot hear the Westerbeke. The Kohler is a good generator and has a good rep. as it sold in 50 minutes after I posted it here.
 
I've only owned one generator, a Westerbeke 8KW. It had 600 hours on it when I bought it and until last year, the biggest issue was the a repair to the heat exchanger. Last summer, I had to remove the genny from the boat and did a minor re-build (I say minor but it was allot of work), there was 2500 hours on it then. I used all WB parts as there were so many needing replacement, I wanted a "spec unit" when finished. I looked around for a new (very expensive) or re-built genny before I pulled the trigger on my re-build but didn't see anything that was comparable to the re-build cost. I'm not sure if the amount of work needed for my unit is in excess of what is expected at that age. For those of you that have genny's with thousands of hours on them, what is your experience with repairs?
 
Odyssey said:
I've only owned one generator, a Westerbeke 8KW. It had 600 hours on it when I bought it and until last year, the biggest issue was the a repair to the heat exchanger. Last summer, I had to remove the genny from the boat and did a minor re-build (I say minor but it was allot of work), there was 2500 hours on it then. I used all WB parts as there were so many needing replacement, I wanted a "spec unit" when finished. I looked around for a new (very expensive) or re-built genny before I pulled the trigger on my re-build but didn't see anything that was comparable to the re-build cost. I'm not sure if the amount of work needed for my unit is in excess of what is expected at that age. For those of you that have genny's with thousands of hours on them, what is your experience with repairs?
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I'm shocked you'd have to do all that to a diesel genny at 2500 hours. With normal maintenance, an 1800 RPM diesel genny should go thousands of hours. I'm at 2800 hours on my gasser, and it works flawlessly. I replaced a timing belt last year, adjusted the valves, did points/plugs/cap/rotor, and new plugs and that's basically it other than oil changes in the last 4 years. The engine in my genny puts out around 100hp, I believe, when used in a car, but only about 10hp when used in the genny. At that rating, it should run forever, and I somewhat expect it to. When I did the timing belt, I did a compression check, and all 3 cylinders were within 3PSI of each other at around 165PSI per cylinder. I was very pleased.
 
carterchapman said:
Maybe Turtle will chime in here. I may be dreaming, but I thought he said he had 4000 hrs on his...
Click to expand...

I fully expect to get 5000 + hours out this unit and I know there will be bumps along the way. I just don't know how many bumps to expect. My unit did not have any "engine" problems, just issues like the heat exchanger, water pump, support rail degradation from a leaking pump, etc. Put together, it was a fair amount of work
 
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I'm at around 2500 hrs on my 8kw diesel westerbeke and so far no issues except a really strange one. If I crank it remotely from inside the cabin, it runs rough like a cylinder is missing. If I start it from the genny mounted controls, it is smooth and silky.
 
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