If you are experiencing a frequent battery drain in your outboard motor, it can be caused by a lot of reasons.
One of the reasons is due to yamaha outboard motor charging problems.
When your boat is actively in use, your battery will play a role in its functionality.
This can be in powering the starter motor.
These activities reduce the charge in the boat battery.
But for the battery to remain in good working condition, the used energy has to be replenished.
This is when charging of the battery comes in.
The alternator or stator through the rectifier help in charging the boat battery.
But at some point, these outboard components can have an issue thereby making it impossible to charge the boat battery.
The reasons why yamaha outboard motor battery is not charging is due to bad alternator or stator, bad rectifier, bad flywheel, bad cables, loose contact and bad battery.
When any of these components get damaged, then the battery in the boat will not be able to charge.
Reasons Why Yamaha Outboard Motor Battery Won’t Charge
1)Bad Flywheel
When the battery in a boat is not charging, there are a lot of components that can be responsible for this.
To know which of the components is faulty, you have to make sure that you perform a thorough troubleshooting.
One of the best places to start from is the flywheel.
This is because the flywheel is one of the principal components of an outboard motor that helps in generating an electric charge for use in an outboard motor.
If it gets bad, then there will be no electric charge production in the outboard motor.
The flywheel has magnets around it.
The stator is in between these magnets.
When the flywheel rotates due to the rotational movement initiated by the starter motor, the stator produces an electric charge.
This electric charge is an alternating current that is sent to the rectifier.
But if the flywheel in the yamaha outboard motor is bad, then no electric charge will be generated in the outboard motor.
Due to this, there will be a charging problem in yamaha outboard motor.
2) Bad Stator/Alternator
If charging of a boat battery is to be possible, then the stator has to be functioning well.
With the help of the stator, an electric charge is genetated in an outboard motor.
When the flywheel rotates, the magnet in it helps the stator to produce an electric charge.
This electric charge is an alternating current.
After this electric charge is being generated, it is sent to the rectifier.
The rectifier then converts it to a DC current and then uses the DC current to charge the battery.
The same thing happens when you use an alternator.
The alternator produces an alternating current which the rectifier converts to DC to charge the boat battery.
But if the alternator or the stator is bad, then little or no electric charge will be sent to the rectifier.
Due to this, the battery in the boat will not be charged.
This is one of the causes of yamaha outboard charging problems.
3) Bad Rectifier
The flywheel and stator/alternator may be the source of electric charge in an outboard motor but without other components to function well, the electric charge produced is useless.
In such a case, charging will not be possible in the boat.
For the electric charge produced in an outboard motor to be useful, it has to be converted.
This is because the electric charge produced by the alternator or stator is an alternating current.
For it to be useful for use in the boat, it has to be converted to a direct current.
This is when it can be used to power the components of the boat like charging the battery.
For this conversion from alternating current to direct current to take place, a component has to play a role.
This component is the rectifier.
The rectifier in an outboard motor helps in converting the alternating current from the stator or alternator to a direct current.
It also helps in regulating the direct current.
The rectifier helps to make sure that the direct current produced does not exceed 14.5 volts.
This is when the direct current can be used to charge the boat battery and power other components in the boat.
But if the rectifier in the outboard motor is bad, then there will be no conversion of alternating current to a direct current.
A bad rectifier can also cause damage to the stator.
That is why you have to make sure that you replace it with a good one anytime you discover that it is faulty.
This will help solve charging problems in your yamaha outboard motor.
4) Bad Battery
When the battery of a boat keeps draining, one of the common things that people think of is charging problem.
But the thing is that your charging system in the outboard motor can be rock solid but you still have a low battery voltage when you want to start your boat.
If after troubleshooting you discover that the charging components like the stator, alternator and rectifier in the outboard motor are in a good working condition, you have to look elsewhere.
Where you have to shift your focus to is the battery.
Here, you have to make sure that you test the charge retention level of the battery.
A boat battery loses charge retention the more it is used.
If your battery is old, then it will not be able to retain electric charge well.
This will lead to battery drain once you turn off the ignition of your boat.
At this point, a damaged battery will self discharge.
When next you try to use our boat, you will have a hard time starting it due to low voltage.
A bad battery also has some internal resistance that twarts charging.
This can lead to excessive heat and explosion.
When you see these signs while using your boat battery, then you have to make sure that you change the battery.
This will avoid damage of other components of the boat and outboard motor.
5)Wrong Connection
When carrying out maintenance in your outboard motor, it is very important for you to use a skilled technician.
This goes a long way in making your outboard motor last longer.
With a bad technician working on your outboard motor, a mistake can be made.
One of these mistakes is made when wiring the electrical components in the outboard motor.
This can be a wrong connection of battery terminals.
When this occurs, you will likely have a charging problem when using your outboard motor and boat.
To avoid this, you have to make sure that you use the services of a well skilled outboard technician.
6) Damaged Cables Or Loose Connections
Before an electric charge can be sent from the stator/alternator through the rectifier to the battery a medium is used.
This medium is nothing more than wires.
This is how the electric charge is sent to charge the battery.
if the wires in the outboard motor is bad, then the electric charge will not be delivered to charge the boat battery.
You have to also make sure that the battery contact terminals are securely held.
if they are loose, then effective charging of the battery will not be possible.
A loose battery terminal can lead to sparks that can damage the battery and other components in the outboard motor and boat.
To avoid this, you have to make sure that the cables sending an electric charge to the boat battery are in a good condition.
The battery terminals also have to be tightly secured.
With this, yamaha outboard motor charging problems due to bad wire or loose battery terminals will not occur.
This will help your outboard motor to perform well when you make use of it.