Can this engine charge the battery?

[jcunningham]

Hi again,
I've had my boat about three weeks now and have come a long way. I took it out tonight and it ran great. So far I've done a carb clean, and replaced the hinge on the float, new bilge float switch, and spliced the engine to battery hot wire. In the next couple weeks I'll start pulling all new wiring.
My battery only reads 10% on my charger. But when left over night on the charger I only got it up to 67%. Do you need a special marine battery charger? Can the 235hp Evinrude charge the battery, alternator?

 

[freddyray21]

Re: Can this engine charge the battery?

If it is a combination marine deep cycle battery it takes a while to get them fully charged. Keep in mind once charged if the motor is running right it does not take much to start it and you motor should keep it charged just fine.

 

[jcunningham]

Re: Can this engine charge the battery?

It is a deep cycle, and I put it on slow charge, but I still thought that after 15 hours that it should have been fully charged. The battery then died quickly after the charge. Doesn't that sound like a bad battery? I bought a new battery which works great so far, but if the engine isn't charging it then I want to fix it before I need to buy another $180 battery. Is there at test to see if the engine is charging properly?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Can this engine charge the battery?

seeing you have a smart charger, that reads volts and %, charge the new battery to 100% then run the motor for a while, then connect the charger, and see what it reads. the old battery being at 10% probably had a bad cell, not holding it's charge. i had one today that read 0% and 1 volt, charged it for a while, and it just totally died.

 

[samo_ott]

Re: Can this engine charge the battery?

Or do a load test on it.

 

[jcunningham]

Re: Can this engine charge the battery?

I put the charger on the new battery. It was at 12.4v and 70%. We had it out for a long run yesturday. So I'm assuming that the engine isn't charging.
Even if the battery was not 100% off the shelf, if the engine was working than the battery should be more than 70%. Only VHF and bilge are connected.
How do I find instructions on changing the......

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Can this engine charge the battery?

Take a digital multi-meter with you next time.Test the voltage before starting the motor then check again when its running above about 2000 rpm.
That will tell you if its charging at all.