I have a 30hp Mercury Lightning 2 stroke outboard (rebadged Tohatsu) on my 4.1m Quintrex Tinny. I have never had a charge kit on it but I was chatting to the local Tohatsu dealer today about getting a charge kit to keep my battery charged. He said the genuine charge kits are about $120 but there is a cheaper way.
Under the flywheel there is an AC coil already and there is two spare wires in the harness ready to go. A yellow wire and a white wire. All that is needed is a bridge rectifier. He told me the local electronics store sold them. So I went down and got one of these http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/46e8e4b8058bb620273fc0a87f9c074f/Product/View/Z3336
It is a bit hard to see in the photo but there is four male spade terminals. I assume two for the AC voltage in and two for the DC voltage out. Would I be right in assuming the two on the right side next to the AC mark would be for the AC in side? Does it matter whether the yellow or white wire goes on which terminal? I also assume the DC out side is on the left and the one marked + is for the DC positive and the unmarked one is the DC-.
I don't have my multimeter at home here ATM but hopefully the outboard is only putting out 12-15V and I wont need a regulator as well.
Does anyone have any experience with fitting charge kits to small outboards? Are all of my assumptions correct? Can I really **** things up by hooking the wrong wires to the wrong terminals? The bridge rectifier was only $5 but I don't want to wreck the outboards charging coils or whatever.
Gratuitous pic of my boat
Under the flywheel there is an AC coil already and there is two spare wires in the harness ready to go. A yellow wire and a white wire. All that is needed is a bridge rectifier. He told me the local electronics store sold them. So I went down and got one of these http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/46e8e4b8058bb620273fc0a87f9c074f/Product/View/Z3336
It is a bit hard to see in the photo but there is four male spade terminals. I assume two for the AC voltage in and two for the DC voltage out. Would I be right in assuming the two on the right side next to the AC mark would be for the AC in side? Does it matter whether the yellow or white wire goes on which terminal? I also assume the DC out side is on the left and the one marked + is for the DC positive and the unmarked one is the DC-.
I don't have my multimeter at home here ATM but hopefully the outboard is only putting out 12-15V and I wont need a regulator as well.
Does anyone have any experience with fitting charge kits to small outboards? Are all of my assumptions correct? Can I really **** things up by hooking the wrong wires to the wrong terminals? The bridge rectifier was only $5 but I don't want to wreck the outboards charging coils or whatever.
Gratuitous pic of my boat