2004 F115 Regulator Rectifier Blows Every 12 Hours

[dingbat]

The voltage indicator on my Garmin

Unless Garmin changed the design, that may not a valid reading.

Had an issue a while back when my Garmin was reading 1 volt lower than my voltmeter. Turned out the unit was reading system (internal) voltage, not actual battery voltage. Confirmed with Garmin tech support.

Suggest you check the voltage on the power connector at the back of the Garmin with a voltmeter to confirm readings.

Could very well be burning up regulators in a over voltage situation.

 

[yamahaguy]

Unless Garmin changed the design, that may not a valid reading.

Had an issue a while back when my Garmin was reading 1 volt lower than my voltmeter. Turned out the unit was reading system (internal) voltage, not actual battery voltage. Confirmed with Garmin tech support.

Suggest you check the voltage on the power connector at the back of the Garmin with a voltmeter to confirm readings.

Could very well be burning up regulators in a over voltage situation.

Youre saying just test the voltage coming into the power connector wire that plugs into the Garmin with the volt meter?

 

[99yam40]

Youre saying just test the voltage coming into the power connector wire that plugs into the Garmin with the volt meter?

and compare to the reading you get to the Garmin to see if there is a difference

 

[dingbat]

Youre saying just test the voltage coming into the power connector wire that plugs into the Garmin with the volt meter?

Yes…unplug the power connector at the back of the unit and check voltage there.

No reason to be burning up regulators unless you have an upstream or downstream problem.

The rectifier portion simply filters the AC output of the stator/generator through a “bridge” circuit to generate DC to power the boat. A failure in the bridge would cause erroneous “voltage” readings since you still have AC in the circuit.

Have you tested to confirm the bridge is functioning correctly?

From there the regulator is a simple sense/bleed circuit which bleeds off the excess current as heat.

Low output currents are typically bleed off via air cooling (heat sink). Higher powered systems bleed to the cooling system.

Have you confirmed the pressure and flow through the cooling system mets specification?

Have you had the batteries load tested?
Voltage tells you nothing about the actual condition of a battery