Help with wiring!

[jamesbrown]

Hey everyone,

I picked up a second hand boat on the weekend and it came with an Evinrude 1988 40HP motor, model number E40BALCC. When I took a look inside, I noticed that there are some wires hanging out not connected to anything. The motor runs fine however, I feel a bit uneasy not knowing what these are for? Any help is appreciated! Thank you

I have uploaded a photo below if you want to take a look.

[Joe Reeves]

The three yellow cut wires that I see lead to what appears to be a rectifier. For some reason, it appears that a red wire (12v) is still attached to that rectifier. The purpose of a rectifier is to convert the AC voltage leading from the stator to DC voltage in order to charge the battery.

Normally there would be a electrical terminal block in that area as all rectifiers are equipped with short leads (approx 3" long) with screw type terminals at the ends of the wires.... there would also be screw type terminals on the ends of the wiring harness wires that would attach to the rectifier leads... easy replacement setup... no cutting!

Unfortunately I do not have a wiring diagram for your model but your local dealer should be able to help you with that if not available elsewhere. The following information may be of some use to you.

(Small Rectifier Description & Location)
(J. Reeves)

On most 2,3,4,6 cylinder engines, the small rectifier is located on the starboard (right) side of the engine just in front of the engines electrical wiring strip. There are a few older V4 engines that have the wiring strip on the rear portion of the engine and the rectifier would be located just under that terminal strip. The smaller horsepower engines usually have the rectifier located on the starboard side of the powerhead close to the carburetor area.

The rectifier appears to be a round object approximately one inch (1") in diameter and also about one inch (1") high. The base of it is sort of triangular in appearance and is attached to the engine with two (2) screws/bolts..... usually one screw/bolt is larger than the other. The rectifier, depending on which one your engine uses, will have either:

One Red wire, one Yellow wire, and one Yellow/Gray wire, or One Red wire, and two Yellow wires.

Note that either of the above rectifiers could have a fourth wire which would be Yellow/Blue