any optimax guru's here?

[Petras]

I've got a 2001 optimax 200 hp. it has already had the catastrophic failure that they are known for and has been fixed. Now i'm seeing that the Tach likes to jump around. also, my new last year optima blue top battery that was fully charged before I put it in the boat was just plain dead the last time we went out. the alternator on the boat appears to be charging and I didn't leave any of the peripherals in the boat on to drain the battery out..... I've never had a problem with the battery running down before. I keep reading online that there are voltage regulators that can go bad and cause the tach to jump and cause all kinds of other problems, except I can't find one on my motor... my motor has an alternator and the alternator has a voltage regulator in it but my voltage gauge doesn't jump around when it's running (only the tach jumps). Any Ideas as to whats going on?

 

[eyexer]

your alternator is your voltage regulator as far as I know. I have the service manual on a disk and I can look for you. I have a 2000 opti 2000. tach's are notorious for going bad so I'd guess unless your motor sounds like it's missing the tach is bad. As far as the battery running down it can be a couple things. Neighbor just had the same issue and it was because he never had gotten his starting battery fully charged. Once he ran a good two day charge on it he has had no issues. I've heard a lot of people that have had bad luck with the optima's around here so I have stayed away from them. Try putting a good hard charge on it for a couple days. Do you have a master switch for the power to the starting battery? If not get one so that you can kill all power to everything when you get home. Mount it right in the box close to the battery.