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Bad Rectifier?

A

auchandler1

Contributing Member
I was reading up on some threads about how to find the problem when your tachometer doesn't work. Basically they seem like all the same..could be the tach...could be a wire...could be a blown fuse? I saw to check the rectifier on the outboard and read about rectifiers. I notice that this was the device that charges the batteries as well. Don't ask why I didn't know that but I at least knew there was something that charged it. Anyways, I then notice that my batteries do not really charge or I thought so I went ahead to check to see if my rectifier is good. I used a digital multimeter with this project. I disconnected positive and negative to both my batteries and then following the instructions has the multimeter in the V(guess as in volts reading) and hooking up black to ground and red to the wire that was red and showed some voltage but when I touch the other two I believe it said AC on both they showed nothing... My guess is its a bad rectifier since it doesn't seem the power is flowing through.

What is your thoughts?

Thanks
 
My honest to goodness thoughts to another southern gentleman is you should hook up your boat to your pickup and take it to your nearest reputable outboard repair mechanic..... having said that this is what your are looking at.....the charging system starts with a stator....this is under the flywheel of your motor....when the motor is running this stator winding puts out an ac voltage.....this ac voltage feeds into the rectifier.....coming out of this rectifier is a pulsating unfiltered dc voltage...this output feeds two places....your tach(probably a grey wire) and charges your battery(probably a red wire)...with everything hooked up and the motor not running a fully charged battery should read somewhere in the 12.7vdc range....start the motor and run at 2000 rpm and after a minute or two you should see your voltmeter increase above what it read with the motor not running...that reading will vary according to the shape of he battery and the amount of residual charge before you started the motor....the grey wire going to your tach should at this point be operating off the unfiltered pulses from this same voltage.....there is a metering procedure to check the rectifier but please check the above and get back to us.....
 
Jerry that website didn't really tell me much to be honest. I tried a test before and they told me to disconnect the batteries both positive and negative. With a multimeter put the black on ground and check both A & B AC and see if there is any continuity in both. Both showed nothing but when touching the part where the red wire leads to the stator (i believe) it shows amps running through? Is this a bad rectifier? Shouldn't it be showing something in both A & B?
 
Ok guys I bought a rectifier at Radioshack for $2.00 instead of buying the exact replacement for $60.00. I put it on the boat after I had to put on some different wire connectors. I cranked her up and RPM gauge came alive and then I checked the battery with the multimeter and the batteries were charging. With that said and everything works I am very happy. If you guys ever need a rectifier, go get one at Radioshack and I can give you the item number for it. Now on to my idle speed adjustment...

Thanks guys
 
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