420 predator charging system

[ChrisDBrown]

Originally Posted by sho305

Most clones have the diode in the wire, they are hard to find hard to notice as they are nearly same diameter as the wire. You must have that so you only get the positive charge not the negative as the coil will output AC power. Its only 3A charge so they don't bother with a regulator as that should not overcharge a battery. On the other hand if you don't run the engine for a while with each start it wont charge enough to keep up and the battery will run down after a while. I don't know about the diode, but most clone parts you can find very cheaply on ebay for example.

When the engine is running you should see AC voltage that rises with rpm, out of the coil wire. With a diode it will be DC power that may be hard to read with a meter because its half the AC signal, but on a battery it would show on a meter as the DC voltage being higher while running, just note at 3A it may not make much power at lower rpm and 3A at 3600 rpm. Without the diode the DC power at battery will not increase while running. I would guess you can get a diode for it, it would need to be rated for the voltage you see at high rpm and 3A current (its rating should exceed those of course). Diodes like that are cheap. Its very possible you could use a rectifier/VR or rectifier off another lawn or even old outboard that uses a flywheel alternator charging system. A rectifier is a dual diode more or less, it grounds the negative power and sends the positive to battery, with a regulator it will shut off charging if battery voltage is too high about 13.5v+, but 3A charge is unlikely to make that happen very often. A diode is just a one way valve for electricity, its used here to let positive part of AC power thru and block the negative part. Unless you hook it up backwards then it lets the negative flow thru.

On my clone 420 the charge wire ran out and down by the low oil cutoff near bottom of block. There the key or kill switch hooked up to the wiring. The diode was in the wire in this area before the key box. Yours may be different.

Hello, I have a Predator 420 and I'm looking to add another coil to double the amps for the charging system. I'm trying to figure out the best way to hook this up, would I hook the additional wire behind the existing diode or should I get an additional diode and connect the wires at the point after the diodes?