Now what? Hi speed miss-intermittent voltage drop

[dgirt]

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2000 Merc ELPTO 125. OK, last week I posted that my tach quit. After following some posts here that did not seem to prove fruitful regarding testing my rectifier/voltage regulator with a volt/ohm meter, the tach started working again. I happily went on my way. Yesterday while perch fishing out by the end of the Raisin River channel, I had the engine running at idle while fishing and noticed the tach was oscillating rather wildly anwhere between 1500 and 5000 RPM. As soon as I revved it in neutral, it seemed to read what the engine was doing.

Then, on my ride in, the water flattened out and I put the hammer down. While riding along at about 5000 rpm and 40MPH, the volt meter would drop to 12 for a moment and go back up to 14V. Coinciding with this voltage drop was a miss on the engine. It was just like somebody turned the key off and back on as fast as possible.

Is it likely that this is the regulator? I've read where I can unplug all the wires going to the regulator and if it does not miss then, regulator is the culprit. I am concerned about running this with no regulator hooked up. If I could get a second opinion from somebody a little more knowledgeable it would be appreciated.

 

[dgirt]

Re: Now what? Hi speed miss-intermittent voltage drop

Any Help?

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2000 Merc ELPTO 125. OK, last week I posted that my tach quit. After following some posts here that did not seem to prove fruitful regarding testing my rectifier/voltage regulator with a volt/ohm meter, the tach started working again. I happily went on my way. Yesterday while perch fishing out by the end of the Raisin River channel, I had the engine running at idle while fishing and noticed the tach was oscillating rather wildly anwhere between 1500 and 5000 RPM. As soon as I revved it in neutral, it seemed to read what the engine was doing.

Then, on my ride in, the water flattened out and I put the hammer down. While riding along at about 5000 rpm and 40MPH, the volt meter would drop to 12 for a moment and go back up to 14V. Coinciding with this voltage drop was a miss on the engine. It was just like somebody turned the key off and back on as fast as possible.

Is it likely that this is the regulator? I've read where I can unplug all the wires going to the regulator and if it does not miss then, regulator is the culprit. I am concerned about running this with no regulator hooked up. If I could get a second opinion from somebody a little more knowledgeable it would be appreciated.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Now what? Hi speed miss-intermittent voltage drop

Not a problem. Disconnect and tape off the yellow wires and go fer it. Just remember that when the battery runs out of juice, it's rope start time. I've heard of it being done, but I've never seen it.

What was the resolve on the original tach issue? Which regulator do you have?

 

[dgirt]

Re: Now what? Hi speed miss-intermittent voltage drop

Original Tach issue was resolved (so to speak) with reassembly. Tach started working again. My regulator has 2 yellow, 2 red, a black ground and a gray

I'm not FEELING the misfire at lower RPM (say under 4000) but during the day yesterday, the voltmeter was all over the place. Ranging from 11.5 idling with a few accessories on (Radio, Humminbird and Aerator) to about 14 occasionally. If load and RPM remain steady should the voltmeter remain steady as well? I suspect the variance in voltage caused the humminbird to shutdown twice during our trip.