Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

[bushwacker1968]

Guys I'm new at this with that said. I just bought a 1996 Hydro Sports 22ft. Ocean Skiff/ With a 175 Evinrude Ocean Pro. The boat has been sitting for about a year. With new tires on the trailer,new boat registeration, new gas and a can of seafoam I was ready to see her run in a nearby lake! And the Regulator/Rectifier began to smoke when I tried to start it up.I shut the power to the battery off checked to see where the smoke was comming from and found my wiring all melted. My question is this, what might have caused this? And should I look for some other source before replacing the rectifier? I'll just wait for your replies and thanks for listening.

 

[daselbee]

Re: Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

First thing that comes to mind is the battery hooked up backwards.
Did you have it out, or disconnected for charging / testing, etc.?

Did you run the engine before purchase? If so, then something changed between the test run and your fire.

Expensive fix....but easily done yourself.

 

[bushwacker1968]

Re: Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

We did crank it up shortly before purchase. The battery is conected corectly, in fact it fired up for a few seconds before I saw the smoke!

 

[archcycle]

Re: Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

A factory service manual is in order here. You are going to need to trace the wires, and you're going to have to test each of the electrical components in the ignition. This is easily done with the original Evinrude factory service manual. It is not easily done or properly done with an aftermarket one like Seloc or Clymer.

It will all be clear when you have the factory service manual in front of you. It will walk you through each component in troubleshooting order. You won't find one in a store so you'll have to find one on ebay. They are model and year specific and lots of ebay ads pretend to be the OEM manual and want to sell you a $5 digital copy. Don't be fooled.

Then for troubleshooting you'll need a multimeter, a peak reading adapter for it (a DVA), and then the manual gives instructions for making a PL-88 load adapter (radio shack parts) for some of the tests.

 

[boobie]

Re: Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

Do what archcycle recommends above. I know it won't make you feel any better, but OMC had a lot of probs with the voltage regs back in those years doing just what yours did.

 

[bushwacker1968]

Re: Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

Thanks for all the Help guys!

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Up in smoke! 1996 Evinrude 175!!!

Bush, My '98 Johnny had some melted wires, that shorted together. It may have been from overcharging of the VR. I recommend you inspect the motor wiring closely to make sure yours is undamaged. I found melted wire on the port side of the motor where the boat harness connects to the engine harness. I also found melted wires under the dashboard where the purple ign accessory wire melted to the ground wire, at the trim gauge.