On Mon, 23 May 2011 15:54:46 -0500, Puddin' Man
wrote:

I've a Skil Mod 2375 3/8" cordless drill (9.6v) thats nearly an antique.

The charger was involved in a safety recall. I have a similar model
with the same problem. The xformer will overheat when trying to
charge a dead battery. If you call the 800 number, you might get a
free charger.
http://www.all-cordless.com/skilrecalls.html
However, if it's a later replacement, then all you did is blow the
thermal fuse inside the charger. You can crack it open and replace
it, but my guess(tm) is you also have some very dead batteries.

Are there any guidelines for substituting these things? I'd like to keep the drill,
but can hardly afford to burn the house down. :-)

Not without knowing where the charge controller (probably just a
resistor) is located. If it's inside the wall wart, you'll need to
add an identical resistor. If it's inside the drill, you can probably
get away with your 12VDC substitute. Measure the current drain at the
charger output. My guess(tm) is you should have a mess of AA size
NiCd batteries inside the drill, which are usually rated at 750ma-hr.
Using the 0.1C rule, that would be a charging current of about 75ma
max.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558