Keep an eye on the Voltage Regulator, older 240 EFI.

[jsgraham]

Added a neat little digital Volt Meter on the Doo today. Figure it might save my bacon if the Voltage Regulator decides to fail again. Had I been able to see that the Voltage had spiked, might have got her shut down before it got out of control. Lesson learned! Spend the 20 bucks, for some peace of mind!

 

[SeptemberC]

Can you elaborate?

 

[jsgraham]

Finally made it back to the forum. had the Voltage Regulator fail on my boat, causing an electrical system issue that resulted in flame and smoke. Melted lots of wiring, and caused some nervous moments for the 8 passengers I had on board. A functional voltage gauge would have alertted me to something being amiss long before the damage was done. Was idling along on a sightseeing float , radio blasting, etc, and Battery light came on, with beeper. Thought it was LOW voltage, so stepped it up off idle and alarm cleared.. until the smoke came....

 

[wrench2ride]

i am pretty certain there was a safety recall on early regulators, you should check with a mercury dealer and have them run your model and serial number of the engine, they were replacing both regulators

 

[jsgraham]

Thanks Wrench, dialed up Merc and they show they were replaced years ago under recall. Maybe I got lucky and experienced a rare failure.

 

[wrench2ride]

No problem, I am pretty sure they had a dot on them to show they had been replaced. new parts can fail too so you probably just got a bad one...