Reply To: Battery Question

[Don]

I read the posts also, doesn’t really make sense that a larger capacity battery would get overcharged sooner than a smaller battery…But, who knows, electricity does many things that don’t make sense to us mortals. In any event, overcharging can occur on these engines if there is no other load on the engine. I have forgotten just what the simple rectifier with the extra purple lead is for, but am guessing it has something to do with the foolish cost savings of not having the dedicated purple B+ lead in the engine harness. In any event, substituting the simple three wire rectifier in this situation will cause an issue. I will have to look up the wiring diagram for this engine to remember just what the purple rectifier lead does, I used to know….
Nonetheless, a simple voltmeter hooked directly to your battery will let you know if it is overcharging. The simplest way to deal with this is to turn on a simple accessory (lights) while running at high speeds, but I guess it would be easy to forget to shut them off creating the opposite condition….This engine does have power trim/tilt, so making trim adjustments while underway should accomplish the same thing.
If high voltage still haunts you, then I would replace the battery with a conventional wet battery, perhaps the next size up from what the basic recommendation is….I have a real hard time buying into the article Tubs pointed out claiming larger batteries got overcharged quicker than smaller capacity batteries, perhaps the author was referring to the sealed battery set ups….
PS- Tubs, I know you just pointed out the article, these are not necessarily your view points…