Charging system on force 120 not working

JTRUSH

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Messages
46
Took the boat out last night for a few hours after work. Shut the motor off for a few minutes in a cove, and when went to restart motor batteries had almost no power. ran around for a bit longer figuring i was charging the batteries. After trailering the boat went to flush the motor and nothing but the solenoid clicked.

i am running two batteries. A brand new marine battery from auto zone, as well as a red top for the amp and radio.

Im a mobile electronics installer and know a good bit about the 12 volt system, so shoot what ever you have.
Thank you.
John.
 

john from md

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Apr 13, 2008
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2,184
Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

First, determine if you have a recifier or a voltage regulator. An easy way to tell is that the recitifer is small and has accessable terminals. The regulator has wires going into the shell.

The alternator puts out 12VAC @ 8 to 10 amps. The wires coming from the stator (your alternator) usually are yellow with a stripe of some kind. Here you should get 14vac or so at idle. If you have a rectiifer, you will have a red and black wire on it. At idle, look for 12-13 VDC here. At 2000 RPM, look for 14 to 16 VDC. If you have a regulator, look for 14.5 volts.

It is always a good idea to wire in a cigarette lighter power plug to you dash so you can use a Digital Volt meter. Walley world sells these for @ $10.

Let me know what you get.

John
 

JTRUSH

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Oct 14, 2008
Messages
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Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

Im new to boating, where would i look to find thous two pieces?
Its a 1990 if thats any help.:confused:
 

JTRUSH

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Oct 14, 2008
Messages
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Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

oh! now i think of it, it does have a small box with a few screw terminals that says AC. Could that be it?
John.
 

maxum247

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Sep 18, 2007
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Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

oh! now i think of it, it does have a small box with a few screw terminals that says AC. Could that be it?
John.

Does it look like this, if so it's a rectifier! Non regulated! You need to use a battery that has the removeable caps that you add to with this set up because the rectifier is not regulated to 14.5 volts. So a maintainence free battery is not recommended on this setup.

max!
 

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john from md

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Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

The regulator is usually located aft of the starter and is usually black with four or five wires going to it. The regulator is usually located in the same area, but has metal fins for cooling and is usually aluminum color.

John
 

JTRUSH

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Messages
46
Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

yes maxum thats it!
i do have one battery in which you can add water too and the other not. they are ran parallel together. so i diode isolate them?
what is my next step?
Thanks for the pic, made it easy!
 

john from md

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Apr 13, 2008
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2,184
Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

If you are running two batteries in parallel, your charging system is not powerful enough to charge them. You need to buy a Blue Sea or Perko battery switch so that you can change which battery is on line at one time.

I also strongly recommend changing the rectifier to a universal regulator as your batteries will last longer and so will your electronics.

See the sticky at the beginning of the Force forum.

John
 

JTRUSH

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Messages
46
Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

thanks guys for all the help, ill stop at radioshack in the morning.
so dont run the batteries parallel? run them separate?
 

john from md

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Apr 13, 2008
Messages
2,184
Re: Charging system on force 120 not working

The switches I am talking about can't be found at Radio Shack. You need to go to Westmarine or iboats.

Your system cannot charge two batteries at one time. Additionally, if you have two batteries, you should use a battery tender made for two batteries and plug it in when you get back from a day on the water.

John
 
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