Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

[Bama Hound]

I have a 1993 115HP Johnson 90 degree CV4 1632 cc. It is OEM for a 32ft. Party Cruiser I bought used in 2009. It had a bad regulator/rectifier on it when I got it. I am a dummy and didn't check charging system before I put it in the water. Put a set of "ear muffs" on it and fired it up. It ran so I clean it up and put in in the water. Tach wasn't working and I put a volt meter on battery with the motor running and with it off and was getting the same reading. On the strength of that I replaced the R/R which is water cooled and under the flywheel which I had to perform with the boat in the water. Which is a sphincter tightening affair almost as bad as "don't drop the soap". Worked great all that year. Put 441 miles on it that year. Boat has a 4KW generator on it that had intermittent problems so I didn't run it. Last year I didn't put in the water due to health problems. I just put the boat in the water the first time July 29. I added all the fresh gas it would hold with ethanol treatments as well as I use STA-BIL as a routine additive. Slow to get it started, but it started and was running good. It was a VRO that had been bypassed before I got it. The Tach was running and motor was running at a pretty fast idle. The dash mounted volt meter was looking over 14 volts which I figured OK I had just gone through a hard start process. It was 98 degrees that day and I was getting a little dizzy and 62 years old so I started onboard generator(that has been fixed) so I could run the AC. It has a electrical panel onboard that you can plug in things one of which was a dual bank float charger PRO 12. The charger was on and I didn't notice it. I went back to console and I was monitoring the gauges and listening and I saw the voltmeter jump above 15 volts and the tach quit. Volt meter dropped to 12 volts. I got a voltmeter and checked battery and it was 12.7 volts. I know this is rambling but I am trying to figure out did I cook the R/R with the charger or did it have an air bubble in the top of motor? Water was coming out pee hole. Also all of a sudden I hear a buzzer in the console going off. I pulled access panel and unplugged the buzzer as I think it probably was the old VRO buzzer. I figure R/R is cooked and I ordered one. What just happened. Question 1 Did charger knock out R/R. Question 2 Did air bubble in motor possible. Question 3 What took the buzzer 2 years to wake-up? Or is that the reason why many bypass the VRO.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

Not sure about most of your questions, but I doubt the charger ruined the VR. Normally both would taper off their charge, as the battery was charged.

There should be an overheat buzzer on that motor. Maybe the motor was overheating? This is important to fix.

Do you think battery cable got loose, when motor was running? That may cause VR problems. if you are using the wing nuts on the battery connections, give them the float test and install nylon stainless steel lock nuts.

 

[Bama Hound]

Re: Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

Not sure about most of your questions, but I doubt the charger ruined the VR. Normally both would taper off their charge, as the battery was charged.

There should be an overheat buzzer on that motor. Maybe the motor was overheating? This is important to fix.

Do you think battery cable got loose, when motor was running? That may cause VR problems. if you are using the wing nuts on the battery connections, give them the float test and install nylon stainless steel lock nuts.

I got an email in my inbox and hit on the link to reply. It didn't show on the board. Thanks for your help Chris 1956. I am usually a lurker so I don't know much about posting or if I made a mistake or not. If I did it was ignorance on my part , mean no disrespect.Now on the problem. I was getting a strong stream of water from the tell tale,but I have been reading a lot on this forum and a telltale is still no guarantee I am getting enough colling water. I have dash mounted PSI guage and it reads barely off the peg at idle and about 7 to 8 at fast idle. I am going to pull the boat and replace water pump as well as R/R. I was doing a test run at dockside and after some starting negative battery lead was warm. I am going to do float test on wingnuts. I normally use flatwashers on connections as well as using pliers on wingnuts, but heat at an electrical connection tells me it was weak. NyLocks from now on. R/R showed up in the mail Friday will do top end tomorrow and tear down bottom part and be ready for pump. One of the things I was asking was since the R/R mounts in the top of the motor would a weak water pump not pump water up high enough to cool reg/rec? Also locals around here are telling me I should replace stator also. Don't want to do that if not needed. BIG Bucks. What do you think? Rebuild water pump and replace R/R and hope? Been told that if stator shorts you can smell it when you pop the cover. No fried smell here.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

When you say R/R you mean voltage requlator, right? I do not know much about the 90* motors, as I have a 60* motor. The waterpressure on my motor is more than 30PSI at full throttle. Cruising is 20+PSI water pressure. if your V/R is the water cooled one mounted on top of the block, behind the flywheel, I would think weak cooling would affect it. Rebuild the waterpump with new parts (have a service manual?), and then attend to the V/R.

 

[Bama Hound]

Re: Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

Yes it is my understanding that it is a regulator/rectifier that was why I did the R/R abbreviation. Fell guilty of one of my own pet peeves. Throwing abbreviations around assuming everyone knows what you mean. Sorry

I pulled lower unit and replaced impeller and the housing. The old housing was not scored that badly. Not a big buildup of scale or crud in lower housing. I am in fresh water. Also did thermostats one of them came out in pieces. That was probably the culprit for the overheat. The fun part was getting the nut loose on the flywheel, to get at the regulator had a 24" pull handle with a 4 foot cheater bar and a grandkid on the end of that, but regulator was replaced and the stator looks and smelled O.K. That ain't science but I went with it anyway.

When I fired it up it runs cool (no alarm), but PSI guage still reads low (2 lbs. at idle and 7 or 8 lbs at fast idle. The line to the guage is 1/4 inch nylon and about 20 ft. long do you think maybe the length has something or should I be looking hard at something else. You can put your hand on either head and hold it about 3 seconds after 30 minutes of fast idle.

I had been told thermostats don't go bad that often. I am i fresh water.

 

[dunnitagain]

Re: Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

How is your water pressure gauge plumbed? Is it just T'd off of Pee tube? If so that is your reason for low water presssure. Also check to see of your Pee tube restrictor is still there, ive seen the hose pulled through the cowling and secured with a tyrap with no restrictor.

 

[Bama Hound]

Re: Did Charger Burn Out Rectifier Just Confused

How is your water pressure gauge plumbed? Is it just T'd off of Pee tube? If so that is your reason for low water presssure. Also check to see of your Pee tube restrictor is still there, ive seen the hose pulled through the cowling and secured with a tyrap with no restrictor.

You been peeking at my plumb'in ain't ya! You should have stopped by the house and had a glass o' tea since you were here. You just described it right down to the "T". Now what? There is also a connector at the transom so makes me think line was cut or something for some reason. I didn't know there was a restrictor in the pee tube except dirt dauber nest. Can you point me right here. I think I got an idea from one of the "stickys" about adding a tell tale. I will give it another thread as it has drifted from the original thought. Good work dunnitagain you nailed it cold.