High volts at high RPM....

[Jeff_S]

I have a Garmin Graph on my boat that reads volts at the cranking battery. This spring I put on a 35 amp stator, flywheel, and water cooled regulator to help with all the electronics on my saltwater boat. I noticed this last weekend that at half to full throttle it shows 17.0-17.4 volts. Is this common with the high amp setup? I don't want to burn anything up. Oh, also, my connections at the battery are tight. The battery was bought this year.

[Jeff_S]

This is on a 1981 Johnson 175 horse.

[racer]

If thats true voltage it is toooo high should be requlated at 14.6+/-

[Jeff_S]

What do you mean by true voltage? It will drop down to 14.6 at idle, but jumps back up as rpms increase.

[T-REX]

I have a merkury 200 wit 40amp that shows 16.5 tp 17volts over 3500rpm....volts don't change over 3500...@ 6000rpm, volts still same az at 3500...below 3500, volts will drop off, and will back to 12.5 to 14 @ idle...Been like this on ever motor I ever run...and have had diffrent charge systemz and diffrent voltmeterz...Never burnt nutt'in, so I lett'er rip!!!...REX

[racer]

What I mean by true voltage is a known good meter directly at the battery.

[sosmerc]

Regulated charging systems should not let the voltage get above 14.5 volts. Mass produced analog marine voltmeters will not win any prizes for accuracy. I always double check with my Fluke 88 right at the battery. I would think having the voltage much above 16 volts isn't going to do sensitive electronics any good.

From what I read here on the board, Balzy doesn't have many electrical problems....metal parts are flying out from under the cowling long before electrical components have a chance to fry!!

[Sparkroost]

Sounds to me like your regulator is not "regulating". Maybe it's not connected properly or it's gone south.