1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

[GaryDean2]

I'm getting a voltage reading of 13.5 to 14.25 at Idle. For about the first 15 - 20 minutes when the engine is brought above idle the voltage goes as high as 18.5 volts. I was having problems with the motor shutting off at higher rpm's before the motor has run for 15 - 20 minutes (fully warmed up) or stopped for an extended period. I was told that the cutting out could be due to an under voltage so I started watching the voltage reading on my graph and saw that it is high voltage.<br />Since I have been watching it I have not allowed the voltage to go above 18 volts without letting off. After It finally warms up the voltage drops to 14 - 15 volts and stays there. I'm guessing voltage regulator but any help would be great.<br /><br />Thanks, Gary

 

[greasemonkeyozi]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

I assume this is a 12 volt system, not a 24 volt system, right?

 

[Gary Dean]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

Yes this is a 12 volt system. The motor Ser.# is OG362514 It has 2 voltage regulators on the back of the engine behind the bracket that the coils are mounted to. I looked up the part # on parts express and they are using a substitute voltage regulator part # than the one that is printed on the part. I'm wondering if they have had problems with this one. Thanks for the response.<br />Gary

 

[ugalboogala]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

I had the same problem with mine.I found that i needed a couple of voltage regulators ,sovled the problem.Those regulators "well mine did" have a clear filling inside them,you can look at it and see some burn inside it.Courious,did you run your battery completley down to the point that it wouldnt start?

 

[Gary Dean]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

I haven't looked at the regulators close enough to see if I can see any burning through the clear (yellow)epoxy or whatever it is. But I will now. I have not run my battery down. The 200 has a jet pump on it and I only use it 10 percent of the time to run up and down the rivers to the different holes to fish. The other 90 percent of the time I'm running my 9.9Hp 4 stroke which charges the battery.

 

[ronmold]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

Is the 200 hooked to a battery? The battery acts as a big part of voltage regulation. In cars the voltage is regulated by a circuit that changes the magnetic strength of the exciter coils in the alternator. Outboards have a fixed magnet in the flywheel and will put out a high voltage at fast speeds. The way the regulator controls this over voltage is by shorting some of it to ground. The natural load of a battery should short much of the extra current,and the voltage reg. the rest. If you have no battery the regulator has to short way too much to keep it at 13.8 volts (which is ideal for a lead/acid batt.) and will have a meltdown.

 

[GaryDean2]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

yes it does have a battery, an optima gel cell.

 

[Gary Dean]

Re: 1996 Mercury 200 Efi (High Voltage)

I got a chance to inspect the voltage regulators and one of them is very visibly in bad shape. the epoxy is separated from the soldering in most of the area you can see. The other one has a little brown around a couple of the soldering points. I think I'll just replace both. Thanks to all that posted on this on this. Hopefully this will end the problems that I have been having with this motor since I bought it. Gary