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Todd Sanders
New member
Username: tsanders
Post Number: 1
Registered: 07-2009
| | Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 09:14 pm: | 
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I have a 1996 88 horse Johnson SPL. Over the weekend the alarm started sounding with the check engine light coming on the system check monitor. The boat was and still is running great. It is peeing the same as always, but the tach was going crazy. The boat was running perfect with the alarm sounding and tach moving from 0 - 6. Any help or information would be appreciated. |
Dcramer
Advanced Member
Username: dcramer
Post Number: 161
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 - 10:02 pm: |
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The check engine light usually indicates a fuel restriction on the carb motors. I don't believe your motor has a vacuum switch. The fact that the tach is going crazy makes me wonder if the unregulated charging system is building up a lot of voltage on an old battery. The best kind of battery for that motor is a non maintenance free battery that you can add water to. The unregulated charging system can boil off a battery pretty good once it reaches full charge. I'd try a different battery first. Also try turning on the nav lights or something to put a load on it to see if the issue goes away. If not, the system check tach is probably eff'd up. |
Todd Sanders
New member
Username: tsanders
Post Number: 2
Registered: 07-2009
| | Posted on Saturday, August 01, 2009 - 10:17 am: |
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Thanks for the info. Never thought it could be the battery, but it does make sense. I will first throw a load on the battery and see what happens. Thanks again. |
Joe Reeves
Senior Member
Username: joereeves
Post Number: 7743
Registered: 02-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, August 01, 2009 - 10:50 am: |
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(Testing Tachometer With Water Cooled Regulator/Rectifier)
(J. Reeves)
A quick check is to simply plug in a another new tachometer as a piece of test equipment. If the new tach works properly and the old tach didn't, obviously the old tach is faulty.... but usually boaters don't carry around a spare tach (see below).
A faulty rectifier wouldn't damage the tachometer, the tachometer simply wouldn't work. This is due to the fact that the tachometer operates off of the charging system and the rectifier converts AC voltage to DC voltage, enabling the charging system. A faulty rectifier disables the charging system, and the tachometer simply doesn't register.
However.... those water cooled regulator/rectifiers that are used on the 35 ampere charging systems (and some others) bring into play a different type problem, and as you've probably found out, they are really a pain to troubleshoot via the proper procedure. There's an easier way.
The tachometer sending/receiving setup operates off of the gray wire at the tachometer. That same gray wire exists at the engine wiring harness which is connected to the engine electrical terminal strip. You'll see that there is a gray wire leading from the regulator/rectifier to that terminal strip, and that there is another gray wire attached to it. That other gray wire is the wire leading to the tachometer which is the one you're looking for.
NOTE: For the later models that DO NOT incorporate a wiring terminal strip, splicing into the "Yellow Wire" mentioned will be necessary.
Remove that gray wire that leads to the tachometer. Now, find the two (2) yellow wires leading from the stator to that terminal strip. Hopefully one of them is either yellow/gray or is connected to a yellow/gray wire at the terminal strip. If so, connect the gray wire you removed previously to that yellow/gray terminal. Start the engine and check the tachometers operation, and if the tachometer operates as it should, then the regulator/rectifier is faulty and will require replacing. If the tachometer is still faulty, replace the tachometer.
If neither of the yellow wires from the stator is yellow/gray, and neither is attached to a yellow/gray wire, then attach that gray tachometer wire to either yellow stator wire, then the other yellow wire, checking the tachometer operation on both connections.
I've found this method to be a quick and efficient way of finding out which component is faulty.... the tachometer or the regulator/rectifier. It sounds drawn out but really only takes a very short time to run through. If the water cooled regulator/rectifier proves to be faulty, don't put off replacing it as they have been known to catch on fire with disastrous consequences.
Thousands of parts in my remaining stock. Not able to list them all. Let me know what you need and I'll look it up for you. Visit my eBay store at:
http://stores.ebay.com/Evinrude-Johnson-Outboard-Parts-etc?refid=store |
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