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Can I safely experiment with a 3rd party voltage regulator?

D

djcamera

Contributing Member
My motor has no voltage regulator, only a rectifier. 1986 Mercury 75HP. I get fairly regular voltage spikes that shut down my more sensitive electronics, like my Garmin fishfinder and stereo. The FF has a voltage reading that shows 16.5v sometimes 17v before a voltage warning and shutoff. Experienced guys tell me the battery acts as the regulator in this motor. My battery is less than two years old and tests good at Pep Boys.

I got my hands on a voltage regulator. This one: https://www.amazon.com/MZS-194-5279-Mercury-65W-81960-00-00-65W-81960-10-00/dp/B074DCX2G4

I want to pull out my rectifier and wire this thing into my motor and see if my voltage settles down.

It may not work, but it won't potentially hurt anything, will it? My only variable is the ground. The rectifier in my motor now uses the base as the ground, I assume this rec./reg. case is the ground, so I'll have to get creative about mounting it and running a ground wire.

Anyway, my main concern is damaging the motor just by trying this.
 
My guess is that you bought an AGM battery. AGM batteries have a different internal resistance and do not work the same as Mercury intended with rectifier only design. I have looked a doing what you are suggesting. There are no reason to not try what you are suggesting except a failure of the regulator could take out your stator. But that could happen with your rectifier too. My suggestion would be to go back to a traditional wet cell battery.
 
I did this install to my motor years ago but it involves spending money at a Mercury dealer
regulator install.jpg
 
If you know what you are doing, you can experiment until you wallet is empty...I've seen a few that went the route of just adding the regulator...

As noted above, regulators make AGM batteries much happier...
 
Well, that is interesting. I never considered that I might have a disagreeable TYPE of battery. This is the exact battery I have: https://www.pepboys.com/champion-marine-battery/product/1767601

Champion 27DC-850CH

And like I said, it tests good, but I've only tested it disconnected from the boat. Since you clearly know more about batteries than I do, can you tell if it's the type that might be a problem?

Regardless, I will try to rig this regulator into the motor in the coming days. What's the worst that can happen? (explosion sound)
 
Agreed, based on the link, what you have is NOT an AGM battery...

That said, the regulator should help the rest of the electronics on the boat...the rectifier only setups provide a wide charging range and some components are more sensitive than others...adding a regulator should make that moot...
 
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