sorry guys, the motor is a 1996 75hp mercury outboard.<br />i originally thought that my charging problem was due to the batteries but after fully charging my batteries and having them load tested i determined that my batteries are not the problem.<br />i was told that they should read in the 12-13 range when the motor is not running and a few points highr when the motor is running. mine read the same regardless of the motor being ran. the volt meter that i borrowed doesn't read in the 10ths.<br />i can only assume then that the problem lies within my motor now, but i have no clue what to check next to narrow down the culprit.<br /><br />what should the next check be?<br /><br />does the fact that my motor continues to run with the battery disconnected(long enough to replace it with a fresh one) make it easier to indicate the problem?<br /><br />can running the motor without a battery hooked to it for a ground ruin a rectifier in just a few short moments(a minute or two)? the reason i ask is because i think that i have had this problem for awhile now. i just assumed that when i lost power to my electronics(graph, gps radios) but my motor kept running was that i had a bad battery or severely drained one.i would then hook up my spare battery and finish out the day. i would go home and throw the chargers on and they would be ready to go the following week. i guess what was happening was that all my electrical use was coming straight out of my batteries with no help from my motor. <br /><br />is the rectifier something that can be replaced with relative ease?<br /><br />can i still use my boat knowing that my batteries are going to be seriously drained BUT without causing any further damage?<br /><br />thanks in advance
<br /><br />TMD