Charging System Not Working

[rammerjammer05]

87' Force 125 model 1258V7B. Charging system has stopped working all of a sudden. Thought that the rectifier was bad so I replaced it from with a 25amp Bridged Rectifier form Radio Shack. Hooked everything back up and battery still not charging. Motor is running great and haven't had any problems with the motor as far as it running rough. If the stator is bad could the engine still preform as it's supposed too. All the cylinders are firing correct and haven't seem any change in the preformance of the engine. Could someone point me in the right direction to solve this problem. Waiting on my manual to come in to trouble shoot but would like to fix this right away. My next step will be to remove the fly wheel and check to see if any wires are broke. I can look under the fly wheel now and can see the wires and everything looks ok no broken wires or anything.

 

[Jiggz]

Re: Charging System Not Working

To isolate the problem you'll need a DVM (digital voltmeter), or a regular voltmeter. First you need to check if there is any output from the stator by taking voltage readings from the two yellow wires connected to the rectifiers. These two wires are the AC output of the stator. Usually the voltage at idle speed neutral of 1000~1200 RPM is about 15~16 volts AC. If there is no output voltage check the wiring but most likely (if you haven't messed with the wiring) is a bad stator. If there is voltage from the AC side, then you can check the DC side of the rectifier. Obviously, if there is no output on the DC side the rectifier is bad or if the voltage output is the same voltage as the battery(which means you are just reading the battery) which is usually between 12~13 volts DC then the rectifier is bad.

 

[jerryjerry05]

Re: Charging System Not Working

outboardignition.com has test procedures for outboards.

 

[rammerjammer05]

Re: Charging System Not Working

Do I check the stator with the engine running? And the the wires on the stator do I unhook them from the rectifier and them check them? My engine has 5 wires on the rectifier, RED (+),black(-),purple(tach),and two green with yellow strip(AC). Do I put the positive from the volt meter to one of the ac leads and the other to ground to check the stator out put? And also IF the stator is bad would it cause the engine to preform any different? This is the original stator that came on my boat in 87', do they just go out over time or is there another problem to cause it to fail.

 

[Jiggz]

Re: Charging System Not Working

You check AC output voltage with the engine idling even on muffs. Yes, take the reading on both Yellow/green wires and make sure the voltmeter is positioned to read AC volts. Read also the DC output voltage (making sure the voltmeter is adjusted for DC voltage reading) between the red and black wire. The positive is red and black is negative. You can tell right off the bat if the stator output is null or zero because the tach meter will also read zero or will not work. A faulty stator will give you bad tach readings or no readings at all and eventually drain you battery which is not a good thing to have out at sea.

 

[rammerjammer05]

Re: Charging System Not Working

Thanks I don't have a tach but I did notice from my volt meter on my dash and the one on my depthfinder that my battery would only read 12.5 volts. The battery is brand new I just got it last week. I know that the guage at my dash ism't always correct and I did just install it. It will be a couple of days before I can test the output with the motor running. Wating to get a digital ohms meter. I have the ''el cheapo'' gind from Walmart with just the meter guage and I don't really know how to red all the numbers on it. The only thing I checked on it is the two green/yellow wires to see if one might be broken and when I hook the = to one and the - to the other my meter would peg out to 0. I also checked the rectifier and it's ok thought it would be since I just put it on this weekend. Could there be something under the flywheel to cause the charging system not to work?