---

I have power to the tach but I am not getting a signal (I think), on the grey wire. Does anyone know if this engine has a rectifier or a voltage regulator and where is it hidden?

---

I removed the cover of the switch box and found the starter solonoid and the Voltage regulator are cleverly hidden in there

---

I assume you have the ground and the hot wire hooked up. I just hooked up a tach last week on my 1961 Evinrude 75 V4. I hooked the grey tac wire to the "signal", black wire to ground on battery and hot wire to pos. on battery. It works. I didn't go thru the harness. Now if I can just find the right "pole". I know this engine won`t turn 8000rpm LOL

---

On the voltage regulator there is evidence of overheating and a few drops of some black goo that dripped out of it at some time.
I suspect the grey wire from the regulator to the tach has a break in it somewhere. That wire runs from the engine into the throttle box and out of the throttle box on another plug wire to the tach
or
the voltage regulataor is shot, (200 bucks)
gonna crank it up in a little while and check voltage at the battery to see it is charging

---

started it u, and the engine runs fine, measured the voltage across the battery poles, it was same with the engine off and with the engine running.
I guess the voltage regulator is shot.
What can cause a voltage regulator to melt out black goo???

---

Just found a NOS regulator on eBay for 48 bucks with free shipping, same exact part number as the one on my motor...My Lucky Day the guy said he has 70 of them in unopened original packages. might just buy another for a backup

---

Disconnecting the battery with the motor running, hooking up jumper cables backwards, running with a battery that won't take a charge and/or has a shorted cell, holding your mouth wrong, yelling at your kids for being kids, kicking the dog. . . . .

---

I knew that dog must have had something to do with it

---

installed my 48 dollar NOS voltage regulator from eBay and TA DA my tach works and the battery is now getting a charge.

---

That's good news.

Now, did you figure out how this happened in the first place or did your regulator just go out by itself....?

---

I just bought the boat a week ago, the tach was not plugged in, I plugged it in and nothing happened . the seller said it probably has a bad ground, what did I know?
Got the boat home and troubleshot it and started to trace that grey wire from the tach back to the motor, when I opened up that switchbox cover, there it was, easy to see, a burned up regulator. I have no idea what caused that, just know everything is working good now.
I checked the lower unit oil at time of sale, it was nice clean oil, got boat home spent a few hours racing around the bay, when I got home I pulled the lower unit plug and milky oil came out, neeed a seal kit. As they say Buyer beware....

---

I am a firm believer of having a Voltmeter on all boats with a charging system. Either a single meter on the dash or one that is built into a fishfinder/GPS etc....
This will tell you whether your charging system is working or not just by glancing at it....

---

Now that the tach is working it is starting to stick at the 3000 rpm mark. I wrote to Faria and they are gonna repair or replace it free of charge under the lifetime warranty. It's a 3-4 week turnaround.

Will it hurt anything if I run the motor without the tach until the new one gets here??