Hi. I'm new to this Forum but I have a problem that I'm hoping you all can help me with.
I have a 2002 Tracker Pro V-17 boat with a 2004 Mercury 75 HP (3 cyl) and up until this year have never had any issues with the outboard. Before a recent fishing trip (last week) I replaced both boat batteries since they were at least 7 years old. I bought deep cycle 12V batteries from Walmart and checked both of them prior to going on the trip for proper voltage and fluid levels which checked OK on both batteries. I thought I was good to go.
Everything worked fine until 3 days into the trip. I then noticed the Tachometer was not working. I also noticed that the onboard battery minder I had installed several years ago would not show the state of charge of the 2 onboard batteries nor did the #1 Battery (starting) show as being charged by the outboard while running like it normally did. This was normally done by pushing a button for each battery and the level of charge showed up as 25 - 50 - 75% etc. The "charging" light normally was on all the time for battery #1 when the outboard was running.
The morning of the 6th day I attempted to start the outboard but it would not turn over. The starter made sounds as if trying to turn over but nothing else happened. I then switched the outboard power loeads to Battery #2 (trolling motor battery) and the engine started with no problems. We used the boat in that conditon until mid-day when we trailered it to leave. Thinking I may have blown a fuse I removed the engine cowling and found a real mess on the charging system side. The 3 coils appeared to have brown liquid coming out of them and the solenoid and voltage regulator were charred and deformed with the connected wiring harness burned with at least 1 wire burned in half. It appeared the entire system had overheated to the point of meltdown.
I checked the battery connection and they were attached to the correct polarity. The batteries both had correct fluid level when I pulled them out of the boat today. Battery #1 checked at 10.89V and is currently on charge.
I cannot find a root cause for the failure. The outboard has functioned flawlessly from the date of purchase until now. I've heard that having a deep cycle battery for a starting battery should NOT cause any issues but I'm not an outboard mechanic. I want to do the repairs myself since I have all the appropriate tools but hate to begin until I know what could have caused such a catastrophic problem.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem as this or have any recommendations on what I should do to figure out what happened? I'd hate to replace parts only to have the same thing happen again.
Thanks for any help you could supply.
I have a 2002 Tracker Pro V-17 boat with a 2004 Mercury 75 HP (3 cyl) and up until this year have never had any issues with the outboard. Before a recent fishing trip (last week) I replaced both boat batteries since they were at least 7 years old. I bought deep cycle 12V batteries from Walmart and checked both of them prior to going on the trip for proper voltage and fluid levels which checked OK on both batteries. I thought I was good to go.
Everything worked fine until 3 days into the trip. I then noticed the Tachometer was not working. I also noticed that the onboard battery minder I had installed several years ago would not show the state of charge of the 2 onboard batteries nor did the #1 Battery (starting) show as being charged by the outboard while running like it normally did. This was normally done by pushing a button for each battery and the level of charge showed up as 25 - 50 - 75% etc. The "charging" light normally was on all the time for battery #1 when the outboard was running.
The morning of the 6th day I attempted to start the outboard but it would not turn over. The starter made sounds as if trying to turn over but nothing else happened. I then switched the outboard power loeads to Battery #2 (trolling motor battery) and the engine started with no problems. We used the boat in that conditon until mid-day when we trailered it to leave. Thinking I may have blown a fuse I removed the engine cowling and found a real mess on the charging system side. The 3 coils appeared to have brown liquid coming out of them and the solenoid and voltage regulator were charred and deformed with the connected wiring harness burned with at least 1 wire burned in half. It appeared the entire system had overheated to the point of meltdown.
I checked the battery connection and they were attached to the correct polarity. The batteries both had correct fluid level when I pulled them out of the boat today. Battery #1 checked at 10.89V and is currently on charge.
I cannot find a root cause for the failure. The outboard has functioned flawlessly from the date of purchase until now. I've heard that having a deep cycle battery for a starting battery should NOT cause any issues but I'm not an outboard mechanic. I want to do the repairs myself since I have all the appropriate tools but hate to begin until I know what could have caused such a catastrophic problem.
Has anyone encountered a similar problem as this or have any recommendations on what I should do to figure out what happened? I'd hate to replace parts only to have the same thing happen again.
Thanks for any help you could supply.