Voltage surge to my marine band radio?

[krats]

I installed a Lowrance marine band radio in my Lund tiller boat last year and when I run the motor up over a few miles an hour the radio starts bleeping and shows me a message that says something like "danger high voltage", then if I back off the throttle the radio stops bleeping at me. All of my electronics are run off my starter battery, including the radio.

I talked to someone who said that I may have a faulty voltage regulator on my outboard motor.

Does anyone have any experience with this that may help me remedy the problem before I damage something?

My outboard motor is a 1987 Mariner 60hp tiller.

Thanks.

[jeffreyd]

That is exactly what i would think. i would compare this to a car, that if the voltage regulator goes south, the spike you will get will start causing the electronics to go crazy. One thing you could do is put a volt meter on the battery and see what it reads when you bring the engine speed up. This will give you an idea if the VM is bad. do any of the other electronics do this? i would as noted throw a meter on it and find out for sure. should not be over 13.5 volts i would say. good luck

[marine_man]

put a volt meter on the battery and see what it reads when you bring the engine speed up. This will give you an idea if the VM is bad.

That's exactly where I would start. Some depth finders will show you the battery voltage if configured which might be a quick way to check it. I'd check it before starting the motor, at idle, and then when you rev the motor up above 1/2 throttle.

marine_man

[krats]

Thanks guys, I will give that a try.

krats

[krats]

Well I picked up a voltmeter today and put the muffs on the motor and with the motor off the battery read 12.2v, at idle it was around 12.8v, and at half throttle it was around 14.5v.

I turned on the marine radio and i could not get the alarm to go off when I reved up the motor.

Maybe I didn't rev it up as far as I thought? I know I reved it up enough to freak out the wife.

Maybe I should take it to the lake and run it around a bit and get it to set the alarm off on the radio, then check the voltage.

What do you think guys?

[marine_man]

I'd try and get the voltage when the alarm goes off; so yes, I'd head to the lake and try and duplicate the problem and measure the voltage.

marine_man