I recently bought a 1978 18' Searay with a Mercruiser 470. Having read most of the Mercruiser 470 posts created in the last three years, I know I made a mistake, but I figure that buying a boat at all was a mistake, so now it's just a question of degree.
Anyway, I took it out on Saturday and all was well until it died (towed back by the rangers--embarrassing). All the electrical seemed dead. When I got home I reset the breaker and plugged in a 1 amp battery charger. When I checked it the next morning the battery was charged, but there was a "hot" electrical smell. I traced it to the voltage regulator. When I detached the battery cable it cooled down, but it was obviously pulling some current (all the lights, etc were off).
I'm assuming that this means the regulator is fried and I need to replace it, probably with the bracket and conversion kit. Is there anything else I need to be worried about?http://forums.iboats.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
Anyway, I took it out on Saturday and all was well until it died (towed back by the rangers--embarrassing). All the electrical seemed dead. When I got home I reset the breaker and plugged in a 1 amp battery charger. When I checked it the next morning the battery was charged, but there was a "hot" electrical smell. I traced it to the voltage regulator. When I detached the battery cable it cooled down, but it was obviously pulling some current (all the lights, etc were off).
I'm assuming that this means the regulator is fried and I need to replace it, probably with the bracket and conversion kit. Is there anything else I need to be worried about?http://forums.iboats.com/images/smilies/confused.gif