As you continue using your outboard motor, some of the parts will get damaged.
This damage will come with a consequence.
That is why you have to know of what happens when outboard motor rectifier goes bad.
When an outboard rectifier is bad, the battery of the boat will not charge, outboard motor will not start, performance of the boat will be negatively affected.
A bad outboard rectifier will really affect the boat performance negatively.
That is why you have to make sure that you replace it when it is bad.
What Happens When An Outboard Rectifier Is Bad
1)Rectifier Output Voltage Will Be Unstable
When a rectifier is good, one of the things you will notice is the range of voltage it outputs.
A good outboard rectifier will output about 14.5 volts at max.
This will help make it easy to charge the batteries attached to the outboard motor well.
But if the outboard rectifier is bad, it will have issues in the range of voltage it outputs.
In the voltage output, it will output higher than 14.5 volts or lower than that.
This is usually not good and will end up overcharging the batteries.
2) Boat Components Will Be Damaged
While making use of your boat that is powered by an outboard motor, you may want to use some components too.
Some of these components are what will make your boat trip great.
It can be a fish finder if you are fishing or other components like a small inverter to power AC gadgets.
To power these devices, you will need a voltage source.
This is usually from the batteries in the boat.
But if the voltage supplied to the battery is too high, it will also affect the components in the boat too.
This can easily result in the damage of these components.
This is one of the things that happen when the rectifier in an outoard motor is bad.
3) Outboard Battery Will Not Charge
In an outboard motor that uses a pull start, a battery will not be needed to start the outboard motor.
But when the boat makes use of an electric starter, then it will depend heavily on the battery to start.
This is because the battery is what will provide the electric charge.
Each usage time of the outboard motor will end up drawing charge from the battery.
But when there is a good charging system, then the used energy can be easily replenished.
This energy is produced with the help of the alternator or stator.
After that, the rectifier helps in converting the AC it receives from the alternator or stator to DC.
This is what will help in charging the battery.
But when the rectifier is bad, then the batteries in the outboard motor will not charge.
4) Boat Performance Will Be Poor
For the performance of a boat to be flawless, a lot of the components of a boat need to function well.
This includes the components that supply electric charge in the boat.
This includes components like the alternator, stator, battery and other components like the rectifier and voltage regulator.
When these parts function well, the boat will be well powered by the outboard motor.
But if they develop a fault, then the outboard motor will perform poorly.
This can be caused by a bad rectifier in the outboard motor.
With this, the components in the boat will not receive the needed charge to perform well.
5) Poor Start
One of the things that you will encounter when the outboard motor rectifier is bad is hard starting.
For a starter in a boat to function well, there is a certain voltage level that the boat battery has to retain.
For the battery to retain this level of voltage, the rectifier has to play a role.
This role is that the rectifier has to charge the battery with the DC current it converts from the AC current supplied by the alternator or stator.
But if the rectifier is bad, the battery in the boat will not be replenished after being drained by the boat electronic devices.
This will keep the voltage of the battery below the level the starter can work optimally.
Due to this, it will be difficult for the outboard motor to start due to a battery drain.
6) Dimmed Light
When a rectifier is good, it helps keep the voltage in the battery at the optimal level.
When the battery is fully charged, the excess power left is then used to run the electronic components in the boat.
This includes the light in the boat.
If the rectifier is good, it will be able to supply a voltage that is not more than 14.5volts.
This wil help the light to shine well.
But when the rectifier is bad, the reverse will be the case.
What you are going to experience is that the light will be too bright if the faulty rectifier is producing voltage more than 14.5 volts.
This can easily destroy the light.
A faulty rectifier can also produce an unstable DC voltage that is less than 10 volts.
Due to this, the light in the boat will be dimmed and not shine as it should.
What To Do When Outboard Rectifier Is Bad
1)Troubleshoot For Cause Of Damage
When a rectifier in an outboard motor gets bad, the common thing from most technicians is to replace it with a good one.
After the replacement, you may still run into a situation in which the newly replaced rectifier gets faulty again.
When this occurs, you have to make sure that you perform a thorough troubleshooting.
This will help discover the root cause that leads to the damage of the rectifier.
A lot of times a bad rectifier is caused by extreme heat.
If you discover that the position of the rectifier is too close to a heat source, you have to make sure that you keep the newly replaced rectiifier away from extreme heat.
2)Replace Bad Rectifier With a Good One
When a rectifier is bad, the normal thing is to make sure that you change it to a good one.
In doing this, you have to make sure that you use an original and durable one.
Within the timeframe in which you want to change the bad rectifier to a good one, do not fall into the temptation of using your outboard motor without a good rectifier.
This will lead to the damage of some components in your boat.
To avoid this, you have to make sure that you are always using a good rectifier especially if you are using an electric starter boat and not a pull start.