I'm hoping someone has seen this before or can figure it out. I'm stuck.
The motor used to charge at about 14 - 14.5 volts, no problem. I suddenly noticed one trip out that the gage was only indicating the motor was charging at 13V. So I began troubleshooting
I measured the resistance on the rectifier to make sure the diodes were working. The were reading really high resistance, so I purchased a replacement rectifier. Still reading 12.5V at the Pos terminal of the rectifier, ~15VAC at the AC input. Increasing the RPM does not change the voltages. This is a non regulated charging system
I took off the fly wheel to check the magnets. one side was starting to peel up, so I re epoxed it back down. Stator coils are good. I put everything back together and still the same problem, it's not charging
When I disconnect the the AC leads from the rectifier and run the motor, the AC voltage goes to 18V at idle up to 60V at 4000 RPM.
When I reconnect the AC leads and disconnect the positive lead, I get 14.5-15 VDC at the positive terminal of the rectifier.
It appears to function as it should until you connect it to the system. I checked and cleaned all the connections back to the battery, and all seemed to be in pretty good shape, but just to be sure, I connected a jumper wire straight from the positive terminal of the rectifier to the battery (bypass any high resistance in the circuit). Still the same problem 12.6V. I did the same bypass with the ground straight to the battery, nothing.
So my question to anyone out there is why does the system appear to function normally when separated from the entire system, but won't charge when connected? I thought about the battery, but I still fail to see how this would make a difference. The battery is 1 year old deep cycle and it works great (It's been starting the boat the whole time I've been struggling with this problem)
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
The motor used to charge at about 14 - 14.5 volts, no problem. I suddenly noticed one trip out that the gage was only indicating the motor was charging at 13V. So I began troubleshooting
I measured the resistance on the rectifier to make sure the diodes were working. The were reading really high resistance, so I purchased a replacement rectifier. Still reading 12.5V at the Pos terminal of the rectifier, ~15VAC at the AC input. Increasing the RPM does not change the voltages. This is a non regulated charging system
I took off the fly wheel to check the magnets. one side was starting to peel up, so I re epoxed it back down. Stator coils are good. I put everything back together and still the same problem, it's not charging
When I disconnect the the AC leads from the rectifier and run the motor, the AC voltage goes to 18V at idle up to 60V at 4000 RPM.
When I reconnect the AC leads and disconnect the positive lead, I get 14.5-15 VDC at the positive terminal of the rectifier.
It appears to function as it should until you connect it to the system. I checked and cleaned all the connections back to the battery, and all seemed to be in pretty good shape, but just to be sure, I connected a jumper wire straight from the positive terminal of the rectifier to the battery (bypass any high resistance in the circuit). Still the same problem 12.6V. I did the same bypass with the ground straight to the battery, nothing.
So my question to anyone out there is why does the system appear to function normally when separated from the entire system, but won't charge when connected? I thought about the battery, but I still fail to see how this would make a difference. The battery is 1 year old deep cycle and it works great (It's been starting the boat the whole time I've been struggling with this problem)
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
