Question about Charging Voltage and Voltmeter

[robdew]

Just bought a (new to me) Tracker Party Deck and the voltmeter doesn't work.

I hooked a multimeter up to the battery leads and I get 12 V at idle and 14V at ~1500 RPM. Can I assume safely my charging circuit is working?

Also, I want to replace the voltmeter. There's 12V to the posts on the back, but there are three posts. I presume one is for illumination. Is there any reason I can't replace this voltmeter with a two post electronic LED model?

If it's critical I can get pics.

[JLester273]

Did you check the voltage at the gauge? I would be checking it there where the gauge is hooked up to the wiring.

Yeah likely you have a positive a negative and another positive for lighting I would guess.

As for replacing you'll have to look and see what is available to fit the hole left by your gauge. Digital or analog it doesn't really matter it just needs to fit.

[robdew]

[quote="JLester273"]Did you check the voltage at the gauge? I would be checking it there where the gauge is hooked up to the wiring.

Yeah likely you have a positive a negative and another positive for lighting I would guess.

As for replacing you'll have to look and see what is available to fit the hole left by your gauge. Digital or analog it doesn't really matter it just needs to fit.[/quote]

yes I measured 12V at the back of the gauge at idle.

[MH Hawker]

if its just 12 volts then you have a problem, new battery's should be at 12.6 to 12.9 volts, at 12 volts the battery is discharged well past 50 % and you want to go with a digital, a analog simply wont show the voltage close enough. 4 tenths of 1 volt is from 100 % to 50 % discharged