Well at least I made it back to the marina!

[packrat]

Hi All!
my camping trip got cut short this weekend by a bad charging system!
heres the story.
bought the boat a couple weeks ago. tuned it up, tested it in close waters a couple times, then decided to go camping on a Columbia river beach. ran great all day Saturday until late in the day. started hiccuping a little on the last run of the day. I noticed the ammeter showing a discharge, also. Normally its pretty much pegged to the plus side. so I went to mess around with it before dark, and it wouldn't start, but would crank just fine. Removed the battery terminal to forstall a short in the harness from draining the battery.
Tried again this morning, no crank at all! UhOh now what? Looked the engine over, and found the fuse for the charging system was completely fried (as in black and melted!)
well I pulled out the emergency pull start rope, and got it to fire, and got her back to the marina (along with the wife and 10 month old baby girl).
So now what? where to start looking? I suspect a bad regulator, how to test it? I am wondering if the car lot messed something up before I bought it, because they sold it as not running, and when I got it the battery terminals were crossed at the battery.

the important specs are:
1966 evinrude 80 hp
model # 80693 c
serial # E01350

thanks for any help on this! and yes my owners manual is on order, just waiting on my next check.

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: Well at least I made it back to the marina!

somewhat cute if you are putting us on sad if you really did this glad your family survived

DHP

 

[F_R]

Re: Well at least I made it back to the marina!

Hi All!
my camping trip got cut short this weekend by a bad charging system!
heres the story.
bought the boat a couple weeks ago. tuned it up, tested it in close waters a couple times, then decided to go camping on a Columbia river beach. ran great all day Saturday until late in the day. started hiccuping a little on the last run of the day. I noticed the ammeter showing a discharge, also. Normally its pretty much pegged to the plus side. so I went to mess around with it before dark, and it wouldn't start, but would crank just fine. Removed the battery terminal to forstall a short in the harness from draining the battery.
Tried again this morning, no crank at all! UhOh now what? Looked the engine over, and found the fuse for the charging system was completely fried (as in black and melted!)
well I pulled out the emergency pull start rope, and got it to fire, and got her back to the marina (along with the wife and 10 month old baby girl).
So now what? where to start looking? I suspect a bad regulator, how to test it? I am wondering if the car lot messed something up before I bought it, because they sold it as not running, and when I got it the battery terminals were crossed at the battery.

the important specs are:
1966 evinrude 80 hp
model # 80693 c
serial # E01350

thanks for any help on this! and yes my owners manual is on order, just waiting on my next check.

 

[F_R]

Re: Well at least I made it back to the marina!

Sorry about the other post, haven't figured out how to do this yet. There are only two wys the regulator can fail: No charge and over charge. To check for no charge, disconnect the wiring plug at the regulator and jump the two terminals in the engine side connector. REmove the "ignition on" bulb and turn off all accessories to prevent damage from overvoltage. Start motor. Ammeter should show full charge at fast idle. If it does, stator and windings are good.

If battery is overcharging, the voltage at the battery terminals will be in excess of 15 volts after running awhile.

If the battery was hooked up backwards, it may have blown one or more of the 4 rectifier diodes, which is probably why the fuse blew.

 

[packrat]

Re: Well at least I made it back to the marina!

you know, some people should take their mother's advise and 'not say anything if it ain't nice' or in this case appropriate. I guess I should have specified that Good advise is welcome, but A-holes aren't.
as for the GOOD advise given by F R, thank you very much. that is a good test. I will try that today. I believe this engine is good, just needs a little tinkering to get it really running good.
I had checked the battery voltage while running before the problems, and it was about 13.5-14.2. Since I know is in the good range, I figured the guage was just really sensitive.

 

[iwombat]

Re: Well at least I made it back to the marina!

I don't know if you've got a mechanical regulator (relay in box) or a solid state regulator transistors in epoxy.

A decent test for solid state regulators is to put a multimeter in the system (anywhere really) and see how much AC voltage is present. There shouldn't be any more AC than a volt or so (even that would be high). If you've got lots of AC your regulator is doing half-wave rectification. This is a common way for solid state regulators to fail.

 

[packrat]

Re: Well at least I made it back to the marina!

Another GOOD test and useful advise! See, this internet thing can work with the cooperation of people who know things others don't! Not just people who post for their own amusement.