On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:16:18 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:10:34 -0500, Jack Goff wrote:

A couple of years ago, the voltmeter on my boat began to read high.
Over a few weeks time, it ended up reading 16 volts at idle and nearly
18 volts at cruise. The motor is a 1999 model Johnson 150 outboard.

It was due for service, and I mentioned it to the dealer. They said
the voltmeter was bad, replaced it, and it again read correctly.

Now it doing it again. This time the battery was going bad, so I
thought maybe that could ahve something to do with it. I replaced the
battery last weekend, and it still read high, just like before.

I'll be doing some investigating with a multimeter next time I'm out
to make sure it's really the meter, but I was just wondering... is
this fairly common? The boat stays covered in a slip except when
we're using it, so its not like it sits out in the weather and is
abused. It just seems that these factory installed voltmeters are
dying.

Yep - been there done that. On my Ranger, I've gone through four of
them since 2000. On the Contender, I had to replace one. I even
replaced the entire Ranger wiring harness when I changed over to my
E-TEC and the meter went bad in two months.

I don't know what it is or what does it, but they last for a couple of
years and whammo - reading high.

Gene's advice is good though - go through the system with a good meter
and see if you might have something odd going on.

My bet based on personal experience is it's the meter.

Thanks, guys. I'll be checking it over, but it's good to know that
they do have a rep for not lasting long in some cases.