1997 50 HP Force

[ilmk27]

I was at the lake today fishing when I noticed my 1997 force 50HP volt gauge was pegged at 18v. If I idled it down it would drop to 14v. My depth finder said input voltage to high. So I came home and started trouble hooting the motor. started off by checking the voltage regulator, cant see any issues with it. so I was about to give up and take it to a mechanic, but I decided to switch the battery leads over to my trolling motor battery. Well when I did that the volt gauge started reading back to normal even when I idled it up it wouldn't go over 14v. I thought bad battery, I took it down to the automotive store to see if it was the battery and they said the battery is good. I'm stumped. Why does it do it on my cranking battery but not my trolling motor battery? Please help, not sure if I need to by a regulator or a new battery.

 

[foodfisher]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

Battery tests are free.

 

[NYBo]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

Welcome to iboats!:welcome:

A theory: You had a bad connection to the first battery. When you disconnected it and hooked up the trolling motor battery, you had a better connection so everything worked correctly. So clean up the terminals on the first battery and try again.

 

[ilmk27]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

I did clean the post before re-trying still same issue.

 

[ilmk27]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

I'm stumped. the starting battery has no ID on it so I dint know the CCA or regular CA. could the battery be to small causing this issue? Like I said when I run it on the trolling motor battery the volt meter seems to do fine. if I run it on the other battery at WOT it pegs the volt meter out at 18V.

 

[ilmk27]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

I had the battery tested and they said it was good at 12.7V, I just don't understand why the Volt gauge pegs out on this battery at 18v but not on the trolling motor battery

 

[NYBo]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

The only other thing I can think of is the cranking battery has an internal open circuit that only occurs when the battery is vibrated, such as when the boat is running at WOT. Without a battery in the circuit, the voltage is unregulated and goes high.

 

[ilmk27]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

Ok now it pegs the gauge out on either of the batteries. could it be the voltage regulator? I hooked a multi meter to the battery with the engine running at idle it says 13.6v but if I increase the RPMS to 2000 it starts to clime to 17 to 18v pegging the gauge out.

 

[scottmm73]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

Have you read this ?

 

[ilmk27]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

I have now, Thanks Scottmm73! Looks like I need to change the regulator.

 

[ilmk27]

Re: 1997 50 HP Force

Changed the regulator now every thing is good. 14.2v at battery while motor is running. Thanks for every ones help!!!