In article ,
"CWLee" wrote:

I had a couple of other 15 vac wall warts left over from
phone answering machines, so I tested one of them, and it
was providing 15 vac, so I plugged it into the drill.
Battery seemed to recharge for about 30 minutes, with the
wall wart getting warm (as the manual said is normal). Then
it went cold, and when I applied the voltmeter I got about 1
volt.

Your problem is likely dendrites shorting your cells. The charger
cannot fix that, it takes a high current burst to melt the dendrites and
then the battery should recharge normally. The charge won't last since
the dendrite crystals have poked holes in the dielectric, but can still
be usable.

A short burst of 24 vdc, like from 2 car batteries in series, should
revive the dead cells. Mine are so far gone I zap them with high
current 24vdc for 20 seconds until I get at least 14.4 volts out, then
recharge normally. They will then hold a useful charge for a couple of
hours before going dead again. A nuisance, but less than continually
buying new batteries at high prices.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/
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