Selenium Retifier Replacement with Solid State Rectifier

[G3]

“Right on spec”.
Well, that’s good to hear. I certainly thought this would hammer my battery.
Tim, can you enlighten me about my thought that the battery tender ruined my lead acid battery, or just coincidence?

Thank you

[Geoff Hastings]

17 volts, so, at least you know you have a good set of coils. I'd go for a modern regulator/rectifier. The original rectifier just converted the ac to dc and relied on the fact that a charged battery has a high resistance and so limits the charge and a discharged battery has a low resistance so let's more voltage flow. Check your earths too, bad earths can cause spikes that can damage semi conductors.

[G3]

Thanks guys for your responses.
Do either of you have a brand (ie Koehler) that can be used for a combo reg/rectifier? And for example, would the Koehler combo regulate at say 14vdc?
If so, is the wiring pretty easy to figure out?

[Tim Allman]

“Right on spec”.
Well, that’s good to hear. I certainly thought this would hammer my battery.
Tim, can you enlighten me about my thought that the battery tender ruined my lead acid battery, or just coincidence?

Thank you

As far as I know, use of a tender is supposed to be the best way to keep your battery happy. Perhaps yours is broken.

That being said, the 17 volts that these batteries have to endure (14 +/- volts is usually used for charging lead-acid batteries) and the vibration ensure that they have fairly short lives. I suspect that a regulator would help although I don't have that experience.

By comparison, I sold my 2005 Corolla in 2016 with 350000 km on it with the original battery. It still started the car at -25C. Cars have much better charging systems.