outboard slowly drains battery....

[CALVINIST]

My 35 horse Johnson slowly drains my battery. Is this an alternator problem exclusively? If that's the case, where can I get a used one? How much would a used one cost? I have model and serial #'s at hand....

[efgh]

You either have a bare wire somewhere between the battery and the motor or the shunt in the alt. is bad, the shunt allows electricy to flow only one way, from the motor to the battery.

[Chris Haley]

Call around to your local alternator rebuild shops. Our local guy does boat and four wheeler generators also. no need to buy a new one when you can get the old rebuilt for pennies on the dollar

[stick]

If it is a Ficht, it will do that. I don't even know if the Ficht was made in the 35 HP, but the Ficht will draw down the battery in a normal operation. I have an Evinrude Ficht, and I was told to disconnect the motor leads to the battery when not in use. I doubt this will help, but thought I'd chime in.

[Valv]

You don't have an alternator on your motor but a "rectifier" which does same thing only electronically.

Only place to find it used it Twin City Outboards or Outboard Motor Recyclers both in the twin cities.

Check their prices, but it might be more economical disconnect the battery, or a disconnect switch.

[Surface Tension]

If the draining battery is dedicated to the outboard, a bad

rectifier is usually the culprit. If you have a shop manual it'll go into detail how to test it.

[primetime49]

does it have electric start or is it an international model lots of these did not have a charging system.is it discharging when running or when not in use if its in non use times simply disconnect negative cable when not in use

[berke99]

After having a dead battery from something left on in the boat several times, I installed a disconnect switch on the battery. After loading up the boat I just pull the disconnect switch, and just before unloading the boat I connect the switch. Never a battery issue any more. If it is going dead while using the boat this will not help your problem at all.

[crappie todd]

I had a 99 evinrude with the same problem. After a week of non use I had to use another battery to start with. It even drained down deep cell batterys in the course of a week.

The charging unit was working fine as I hooked up a VOM and checked the running voltage output. And it would be fine all weekend once it re charged.

I had to disconnect the battery every Sunday. when I did that I was Ok the next weekend.