Question about the Volt Guage on the dash-gctid399406

[Guest]

Hi Folks,

I have a question about the volt meter on the dash of my Bayliner Ciera. The guage reads maybe ~10v but the batteries are recieving a full charge. I installed an isolator in line but prior to that the guage read ~13v. I tested the charging system with a meter and its charging perfectly and the batteries are charging properly.

The question is where does the meter read voltage from and will the isolator typically cause this kind of behavior? Or do I just have a bad guage? I dont think its the guage because if I take the isolator out and start the boat, the guage reads ~13v again.

Thanks

[Guest]

On all of the Bayliners I've worked on, the Volt Meter simply measures the voltage after the ignition switch. So, the power comes up the ? orange wire, goes through the on-off switch, then powers the gauges and auxiliary devices.

Typically, the fuse on the engine can get dirty or the orange power wire can be damaged. On the earlier Bayliners, the Orange feed wire was undersized, so, you really couldn't add the electronics that you wanted. I usually added an auxiliary circuit for my Nav gear.

I would put a meter on the batteries when the engine is running and see if the voltage rises. This would indicate that the batterie are charging.

[Guest]

The Red/Purple wire brings battery V up to the ign switch. The voltmeter then reads V off the A terminal on the ign switch when the key is turned on. If you are seeing 13V+ at the battery, you should be seeing something similiar on the voltmeter. There are several engine connection teminals that may be dirty in the path to get up to the ign switch. One is on the starter, one on the assist solenoid, and then the engine to instrument connection (the big plug caryring all wires forward to the helm).

Do you have a description or diagram of how this isolator is installed? Normally, the POS on the alternator is connected to the terminal on the assist solenoid where the Red/Purple wire resides. If so, you should see the 13V+ on that wire.

[Guest]

The POS is actually going to the isolator, from there is separates to the 2 banks of batteries.

[Guest]

if you removed the original POS wire that went from the POS terminal to the assist solenoid when installing your isolator, then your gauges would only be seeing battery voltage. That wire is orange from the assist solenoid to the POS. If you were seeing battery voltage, I would expect closer to 12V rather than 10V. Anyway, just leave the original orange wire connected to the POS terminal and assist solenoid. Then place your wire to the center of the isolator on the POS terminal along with the original orange wire.