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2 things happened recently, probably unrelated.

1. Tach stopped working. All connections appear tight.

2. Engine wouldn't start, nor would hydraulics work; apparently no juice. Checked battery terminals, removed cowling and checked connections to engine; both ends appear tight. It was after a 30 minute high-RPM run, but engine cooling appeared to be normal (peeing to beat the band while it was running). I suppose there could be a broken wire in between.

Any tips on diagnosing the tachometer? Anyone else experienced a mysterious loss of electrical power?

Battery's probably all right but that's where you'll have to start and work outward. If you don't have a multi meter tester yet, pick one up at a hardware store and have the guy show you how to troubleshoot 12V DC.

The bulb in the handle of the icepick tester works good, if you can find a good ground for the alligator clip at the end of the wire.

Hopefully, it's just a contact/connection along the way. Sea air does strange things to what appears perfectly normal.

Check your kill switch lanyad to make sure it is place. I would like to just remove mine. Durn safety stuff causes more problems than it fixes.

Tack stopping means your windings are burnt under flywheel, remove top cover and look under fly wheel, if the white covered windings are brown they are burt and your charging system is gone.

This can happen from a loose battery cable, or a cable end coming off.
Windings are 120.00 and fly wheel bolts 10.00, you have to replace the fly wheel bolts each time you take them loose.

This has happened to me.

/engine should still start if it is the windings, Honda is on a magneto system.

check your battery and see that is is fully charged. If it does not start then you have another problem.
My best guess

Mark

Check the fuse under the cowling too.

Mark Chamberlain wrote:Tack stopping means your windings are burnt under flywheel, remove top cover and look under fly wheel, if the white covered windings are brown they are burt and your charging system is gone.

This can happen from a loose battery cable, or a cable end coming off.
Windings are 120.00 and fly wheel bolts 10.00, you have to replace the fly wheel bolts each time you take them loose.

This has happened to me.

/engine should still start if it is the windings, Honda is on a magneto system.

check your battery and see that is is fully charged. If it does not start then you have another problem.
My best guess

Mark

Mark, if this was true, then the battery wouldn't be charging while the engine was running, right?

I put a voltmeter across the battery terminals, and measured approximately 1.5V more when the engine was running than when it wasn't. This would lead me to believe that the battery was in fact being charged . . . what do you think?

argonaut wrote:Check the fuse under the cowling too.

Yup, removed it, checked it, reinserted it, wiggled it a bit to make sure it was seated. Since the problem happened, it hasn't reoccurred over 3 days of sailing and motoring.

Tach's still broke, though

Unfortunately, I'm watching this thread closely, as I've experienced similar problems with the honda tach.

Engine is a 96 BF 50 Honda. Battery is an Eveready deepcycle.

I had the lower unit changed last year - KaChing!!
When I got the boat back, the tach wasn't working. The servicing dealer near Toronto, insisted that it must be a coincidence. The replacement was about 200 CAN$. He recommended a less expensive tach. (still with the Honda nameplate but a larger diameter) that he claimed to sell me at cost. Total was $145 after taxes - supply only.

Eight months later, this tach has failed as well. I asked him to bench test it, to help kickstart the troubleshooting process, but he said that he could not.

Needless to say, this has been very frustrating.
Also, I'm losing faith in the charging system. This spring, there was a month long period, where I'm sure the battery was not recharging, even after extensive motoring. I bought one of those fancy marine smart chargers with the 15A, 10A , trickle options and alternator volt meter.
I've measure voltages in the 15.5 V range, sometimes even higher. The unit has a display for voltage and %charged and usually read 80% charged at dock. Upon charging from 110 AC it comes up to 100% in less than 10 minutes.

I must confess here, though that I wasn't aware of a mode switch that changes the unit from Normal, Deep Cycle, Gel Cell

Recently though, the battery seems to be more fully charged. This is good news for my summer boating, but bad news to try to trace and permanently fix the problem.

Question:
1) Are the tach and charging problems likely to be related?
2) Can anyone direct me to a troubleshooting checklist to start fixing this.

Ralph K.