I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

Mitch wrote:
I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them test it,
but it sure sounds dead to me. How old is it.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them test it,
but it sure sounds dead to me. How old is it.


6 years.

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:09:33 GMT, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

Contact points? Do you mean the battery posts, and the inside of the
battery cables, where they connect to the battery posts?

(I was thinking maybe you meant where the charger clamped on, and I
don't usually clean that part, I just wiggle the clamps until the
ammeter shows current. But the battery posts get dirtier and can
totally block the current. Sometimes, if the battery seems dead or
almost dead, after trying to start the car for a while, you can touch
the battery cables at the posts and one will be hot. The hot one is
dirty, inside.

You should clean these. A wire brush is better than sandpaper,
although if you used sandpaper this time, you could just use your
finger to brush off any abrasive left behind.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

I sort of think the opposite. Even a bad battery will accept current
through it. That makes me think there is so much dirt between the
battery cable and the battery post that no current ccan get through.

It won't look that much different.

Oh, yeah, also clean t he whole think with baking soda and warm water.
The book says to make a paste with water, but I'm lazy so I pour
baking soda on the battery's top, especially by the posts, and then I
slowly pour warm water over it until it stops bubbling. Then I use the
rest of the water to wash everything off the battery. It doesn't
matter what it lands on below.

And for a dollar, get a set of felt washers, red and green, and put
them under the battery cables as the instructions say, adn they will
probably make cleaing unnecessary for years.

Please let me know.

BTW, you should still be able to jump the car from a good car. If you
have cables with a lot of wire in them** even without a battery, but
with cheap cables even the deadest battery will usually hold enough so
after 3 to 8 minutes, if the charging car is still connected, you can
start the car. But not true if the battery posts are so dirty nothing
gets into the battery.

plus to plus, negative to negative.


**Sometimes very thick cables have very little copper inside.

Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the battery
terminals

I'm connecting the + to the battery's positive, and the - to a bolt
head on the engine block.

I'll try cleaning again.

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:09:33 GMT, Mitch Mitch@ wrote:


I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?
yes. Replace it.

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:48:38 GMT, Mitch Mitch@ wrote:



Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the battery
terminals

I'm connecting the + to the battery's positive, and the - to a bolt
head on the engine block.

I'll try cleaning again.

If the battery has sulfated then it's internal resistance is going to prevent
it from ever charging again. It is as if you replaced the battery posts with
insulators.

On Mar 26, 1:09 pm, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:
I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

Deader than that skunk on the side of the road on the drive into work
this morning.

John

Mitch wrote:
I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?


Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the battery
terminals, but perhaps through another path like plugging it into a
cigarette lighter socket?

If so, then look for a blown fuse in the cigarette lighter feed.

If you ARE connecting directly to the battery's terminals and it's still
not drawing any current from the charger, then chances are good that one
of the internal straps connecting the cells in series has snapped loose,
i.e. the battery is junque. A battery which isn't broken but just won't
"hold a charge" will draw SOME current from a charger.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

connect charger, turn on headlights, charger should show current flow.

be certain you have polarity right!!

wrong polarity most chargers shut down to protect things

Mitch wrote:
Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them
test it, but it sure sounds dead to me. How old is it.


6 years.

About what I thought. It's due.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Mitch wrote:
Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the battery
terminals


I'm connecting the + to the battery's positive, and the - to a bolt
head on the engine block.

I'll try cleaning again.

But.....If the negative battery cable has an open contact at EITHER end,
that will prevent current flow to the battery.

The admonition about making the last connection (or first
disconnection)to a grounded metal surface OTHER than the negative
battery terminal stems from wanting to keep any spark which happpens at
that connection from igniting hydrogen gas emitted from the battery cell
vents.

It's a meaningful concern for high current flows such as those which can
occur when jumper cables are used which can cause a lot of hydrogen to
be emitted, but hardly worrysome for a "dead" battery which is only
going to receive a few amps from a charger.

Just don't put your face smack over the top of the battery when
connecting the charger to it's contacts, best to lean back and look
sideways just to be safe.

I've only seen one battery "blow up" myself and it was about 50 years
ago. I had a car with a top post 6 volt battery with a buggered up nut
on cable clamp. I was attempting to saw through the clamp tangent to the
post with a hacksaw and didn't watch where the front end of the blade
was. Sure enough, it hit the other cable clamp and jammed up the blade.
While I was trying to wrench it free I watched the blade get red hot,
and an ohohsecond later the top blew off one of the cells.

My guardian angel was laughing his ass off at me, but he was kind enough
to keep the sulphuric acid from spraying into my eyes. G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

On 26 Mar 2007 15:05:36 -0700, "
wrote:



wrong polarity most chargers shut down to protect things

I didn't know about that. Of course mine are both about 40 years old.

Mitch Mitch@... wrote in
:


Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them
test it,
but it sure sounds dead to me. How old is it.


6 years.


probably bone dry;no electrolyte left.

Most lead acid car batteries last abou 4 yrs,less in a hotter climate.
So-called sealed,maintenance free batteries are not "sealed",and thus the
electrolyte evaporates eventually.Often there are removable cell caps under
a label od disguised as not removable,and you can keep the level up with
distilled water.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

On Mar 26, 6:38�pm, Jim Yanik wrote:
Mitch Mitch@... wrote :



* *Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them
* *test it,
but it sure sounds dead to me. *How old is it.

6 years.

probably bone dry;no electrolyte left.

Most lead acid car batteries last abou 4 yrs,less in a hotter climate.
So-called sealed,maintenance free batteries are not "sealed",and thus the
electrolyte evaporates eventually.Often there are removable cell caps under
a label od disguised as not removable,and you can keep the level up with
distilled water.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

I had one completely open once, at 2 years old. But if you turn on
headlights charger should show action.

On Mar 26, 12:48 pm, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:
Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the battery
terminals

I'm connecting the + to the battery's positive, and the - to a bolt
head on the engine block.

I'll try cleaning again.

Sounds like a bad ground.
Also a 6 year old battery is pushing the limit age-wise.I generally
use a battery 2-4 years here in the Midwest then if it's still good I
keep it charged and ready to back up the new one just in case.

mm wrote:

On 26 Mar 2007 15:05:36 -0700, "
wrote:



wrong polarity most chargers shut down to protect things


I didn't know about that. Of course mine are both about 40 years old.



Hell, my Eico 6/12 volter is older than that and uses a selenium rectifier.

Used it just last week when youngest son's 95 Honda's battery got
discharged because water got into the underhood relay for the AC clutch
and created a path between its hot contact and the end of its coil which
backfed juice to the coil of the heater fan relay which kept that fan
running until the battery died. Took us nearly three hours to figure
that one out. He can live without an AC clutch relay until the weather
warms up. G

I used to have a charger with a tungar tube rectifier in it, but someone
swiped it....

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

"NickySantoro" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:09:33 GMT, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

I've never seen a bad battery show nothing on the charging meter.
Possibly the battery discharged completely then froze and cracked
internally. Is the outlet where you plugged in the chargers live?
Failure to draw charging current is commonly caused by (1) corroded
connections, (2) extremely low electrolyte level, (3) severe sulphation, or
(4) broken internal connection. A battery with any internal problem is in
danger of rupturing if a high current source such as jumper cables or a high
current charger is connected.

That battery is past its useful life and should be replaced.

Don Young

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:02:55 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

mm wrote:

On 26 Mar 2007 15:05:36 -0700, "
wrote:



wrong polarity most chargers shut down to protect things


I didn't know about that. Of course mine are both about 40 years old.



Hell, my Eico 6/12 volter is older than that and uses a selenium rectifier.

I know you've got me on age, and I'm sorry my chargers are younger
than yours, but hey, they both had selenium rectifiers when they
started. And they are both 6/12.

The small 1 amp one is a Goodyear charger, that my cousin Morris must
have bought at a Goodyear store. He was about 82 when I was 18, in
1965, my grandfather's cousin, and he said he wasn't going to be
driving his "machine" anymore, and my mother said she would like to
buy it, a '50 Olds, but he gave it to her, to me actually. It had the
charger in the trunk, so I guess it is at least 42 years old plus
however long he had it. It has the same shape and layout of other
1-amp metal-box chargers of a 20 or 30 year period back then.

The rectifier failed, and the only one I found was much bigger, too
big to go inside, and now sits on top of the little box, sort of like
the first refrigerators with coils on top.

The second one I found on a street corner in an industrial area of
Brooklyn, around 1974, but I'm figuring it was at least 7 years old at
the time. It's 5 or 10 amps, it's downstairs and I don't recall the
brand (It's red and white) and has a meter.

I think it was broken when I found it, and I decided the selenium
rectifier was bad. I was sure I could buy one somewhere in the 5
boros, but couldn't find it in Brooklyn or Queens. And Allied Radio
was gone by then, so I didn't know of a catalog source. So the thing
sat for 5 or more years, and then I decided to fix it for sure, but it
worked by then and worked for another 10 years. (I don't use these
things that often.) Finally the rectifier did go, and I replaced it
with 4 or 8 tophat diodes. Also in the middle I replaced the cloth
insulated leads with heavy, even longer wire ones.

Used it just last week when youngest son's 95 Honda's battery got
discharged because water got into the underhood relay for the AC clutch
and created a path between its hot contact and the end of its coil which
backfed juice to the coil of the heater fan relay which kept that fan
running until the battery died. Took us nearly three hours to figure
that one out.

I"m not surprised. Congrats.

He can live without an AC clutch relay until the weather
warms up. G

I used to have a charger with a tungar tube rectifier in it, but someone
swiped it....

I hate that. I've had a few tools stolen but so far, not many.

BAck to the first small charger. I had the 6-volt '50 olds in Chicago
during the winter of '67 - '68 and it was cold, so I ran a long, heavy
duty, "cloth and wax"? insulated extension cord I had made up from the
pantry of the frat house to the no parking sign, and I put the charger
under the hood and plugged the car in whenever I was there which was
all but 3 to 8 hours a week. The 6-volt setting didn't seem to be
enough, so I put it on the 12-volt setting, and the clear glass, xmas-
tree-light-like circuit breaker would trip after about 8 seconds, and
reset after about 3, and it did that for at least 4 months, day and
night. 6000 times a day, 120 days, 720,000 times. And it worked find
and the battery stayed charged fine, except for one night it was down
to zero when the tow truck couldn't start me either.

Once I caught the ac cord in the car's fan and ripped it and its
grommet out, and distorted the hole, but that was repairable. The
hole is still open and distorted.

It still works today too.

Jeff

Not necessarily. Put your charger on it's lowest setting and turn the park
lights on. If the battery is completely dead, as in dead as a doorknob,
sometimes chargers won't charge. Turning the park lights on gives it
something to do and sometimes gets the charging action going.

--
Steve Barker

YOU should be the one
controlling YOUR car.
Check out:
www.lightsout.org




"Mitch" Mitch@... wrote in message
...
I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

Mitch wrote:
Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the battery
terminals


I'm connecting the + to the battery's positive, and the - to a bolt
head on the engine block.


That may be part of your problem. Connect the negative clamp from the
charger DIRECTLY to the
battery negative post.v Same thing with the battery positive post and
the charger positive clamp.
Get the cables out of there. Get the cables off both the negative and
positive posts and clean both posts THOROUGHLY before charging.

While its charging, clean the insides of the cables thoroughly.


Unless its totally dry (possible, but not likel) or unless the nternal
battery connections are broken, it should show continuity though the
battery, and ake a partial charge

Some "sealed" batteries can be refilled with electrolyte / distilled
water. Some are not as "sealed" as you miht believe.

If an internal battery connection is broken, you have a boat anchor. A
broken internal connection can't be "cured".

Have you used a good DVM to test internal continuity within the battery
to see if there is a boken internal connection?



I'll try cleaning again.

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:09:33 GMT, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead
from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?

BTW, it won't kill you or bankrupt you if you rpelace a battery early.

But I think the idea was for you to get the answer for your question,
so you would know more about this for the future.

Anotehr suggestion is to measure the voltage at the battery posts.
12.6 is fully charged, and it should be higher than that if the engine
is running or there is a battery charger on it.

I forget exactly, but I think 11.6, if that is before you connect the
charger, would probably go higher, probably high enough. Regardless
of where it started, if it got to 12.4 that might be enough to run the
car. I don't remember numbers very well, but you can learn what the
various number indicate.

Most apparently sealed lead acid car batteries can still have their
caps pried off, 2 caps for 3 cells each. Best to use distilled water
to refill. (There are a lot of truly sealed smaller batteries,
including gel cells which are sealed. But there aren't too many sealed
car batteries, and it probably says it in big letters if it is. After
they came out, the battery caps on regular batteries, including iirc
lo-maintenance batteries, were redisigned to make the batteries look
like sealed ones. I think there is a narrow, barely noticeable,
1-inch slot at each end, one for each cap, if they are meant to come
off.

Fill until you see the meniscus, the place at the edge of the water
where it curls up. When the water level is low, this is out of sight
at the edge of the rectangular cell. When the water level is high
enough, the water's as high as the round tube going down from the
round hole, so you can see the curve up at the edge. That's meant to
be the proper level for the water.

In article . com, "Dean" wrote:

Also a 6 year old battery is pushing the limit age-wise.I generally
use a battery 2-4 years here in the Midwest then if it's still good I
keep it charged and ready to back up the new one just in case.

Not necessarily... Just after our second child was born in 1991, I decided it
was time for a bigger car, and bought a 1984 Buick LeSabre (which we kept
for another ten years and 150K miles). Somewhere around '96 or '97, the
LeSabre needed a new battery. As I was taking the old one out, I got to
thinking that I didn't remember changing the battery in that car before -- but
I didn't think the car had a new battery when I bought it, either... hmmmm....

So I checked the date-of-manufacture code: October 1983.

AC-Delco. Original equipment. Guess which brand I bought for a replacement.

And we live in central Indiana, not exactly a kind environment for car
batteries.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Mar 27, 3:57 am, (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article . com, "Dean" wrote:

Also a 6 year old battery is pushing the limit age-wise.I generally
use a battery 2-4 years here in the Midwest then if it's still good I
keep it charged and ready to back up the new one just in case.

Not necessarily... Just after our second child was born in 1991, I decided it
was time for a bigger car, and bought a 1984 Buick LeSabre (which we kept
for another ten years and 150K miles). Somewhere around '96 or '97, the
LeSabre needed a new battery. As I was taking the old one out, I got to
thinking that I didn't remember changing the battery in that car before -- but
I didn't think the car had a new battery when I bought it, either... hmmmm....

So I checked the date-of-manufacture code: October 1983.

AC-Delco. Original equipment. Guess which brand I bought for a replacement.

And we live in central Indiana, not exactly a kind environment for car
batteries.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

Wow! That's pretty impressive,and in a climate with temp extremes! My
Dad did'nt like people to run the radio because He wanted the battery
to last longer! Too strict for Me,,I'll run the radio on a jobsite(or
a party)for hours on end just starting occasionally to charge.I have
plug ins for scanner and radar detector and cellphone that
occasionally are forgotton and remain plugged in for days..
I've heard the drycell car batteries are worth the extra $s,,any
thoughts/expierience on that and will they perform better in sub-0
temps? A younger friend of My Sons' has a drycell battery that's about
6yo and He says it's going strong.
Dean

I replace car batteries BEFORE THEY DIE!.........

I found this helps alternators last longer. I buy the diehard gold or
equivalent and replace before 4 years. saves getting stranded and lots
of other hassles.

With pittsburghs rough roads batteries have a tough life

mm wrote:
On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:02:55 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:


mm wrote:


snipped

BAck to the first small charger. I had the 6-volt '50 olds in Chicago
during the winter of '67 - '68 and it was cold, so I ran a long, heavy
duty, "cloth and wax"? insulated extension cord I had made up from the
pantry of the frat house to the no parking sign, and I put the charger
under the hood and plugged the car in whenever I was there which was
all but 3 to 8 hours a week. The 6-volt setting didn't seem to be
enough, so I put it on the 12-volt setting, and the clear glass, xmas-
tree-light-like circuit breaker would trip after about 8 seconds, and
reset after about 3, and it did that for at least 4 months, day and
night. 6000 times a day, 120 days, 720,000 times. And it worked find
and the battery stayed charged fine, except for one night it was down
to zero when the tow truck couldn't start me either.

I had an apartment mate in college whose car was so difficult to start
during Boston winter weather that he'd stagger out of bed in the
morning, clomp down the two flights of stairs to the street and plant a
lit Coleman gasoline stove under his car's engine's oilpan, then come
back up and wait about a half hour before trying to start the beast.
(Oil pans were a lot higher off the pavement then than they are now...)

It gets me to realizing that some things about cars have gotten better
since I started driving. I can't remember the last time I suffered with
a flat tire, but they seemed to be almost monthly occurances when I was
younger. And, even though I usually hang onto a car until it's at least
ten years old I haven't had a winter starting problem in a long time either.

I suppose the trade off is that many parts of cars seem to require less
maintenance nowadays, but the cost to repair them when needed has
escalated out of proportion to anything exept maybe college tuition and
gasoline. G Thanks to computerized cars I'm fnoticing that the most
frequently used tood I'm fixing my cars with lately is....you guessed
it....my checkbook.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

In article .com, "Dean" wrote:

I've heard the drycell car batteries are worth the extra $s,,any
thoughts/expierience on that and will they perform better in sub-0
temps? A younger friend of My Sons' has a drycell battery that's about
6yo and He says it's going strong.

Don't know. The battery we got such phenomenal life out of was a conventional
lead-acid wet cell.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

NickySantoro wrote:
On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:09:33 GMT, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:


I went to start my Explorer the other day, and the battery was dead

from sitting so long.

I put a battery charger on it, but I'm not getting anything...zero
amps on the charger.

I've sanded all the corrosion from both contact points, down to shiny
bare metal...still nothing.

I also have a battery tender, so I put that on. It has an LED to
indicate charging...it's not lit.

Does this mean the battery is done for?


I've never seen a bad battery show nothing on the charging meter.
Possibly the battery discharged completely then froze and cracked
internally. Is the outlet where you plugged in the chargers live?

If it is frozen now it would act as described.

More information than you want to know about batteries is at
http://www.batteryfaq.org

--
bud--

mm writes:

I sort of think the opposite. Even a bad battery will accept current
through it. That makes me think there is so much dirt between the
battery cable and the battery post that no current ccan get through.

Not necessarily. If the battery has been overcharged for a long period,
so that one or more cells is virtually dry, the battery will be an open
circuit. Or if it's been left discharged for a long time, the plates
will sulfate, and then it won't draw any significant current from a
charger. The latter is more likely in this case.

Apparently, sulfated batteries can be restored to operation in some
cases.

Dave

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:11:48 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:50:05 -0500, "Steve Barker"
wrote:

Not necessarily. Put your charger on it's lowest setting and turn the park
lights on. If the battery is completely dead, as in dead as a doorknob,
sometimes chargers won't charge. Turning the park lights on gives it
something to do and sometimes gets the charging action going.


"Good" chargers won't turn on until they see a little voltage from the
battery. It keeps the thing from shorting out if you just touch the
leads together. I think it is really because the charge monitor uses
the voltage from the battery to bootsrtrap itself up.
A "cheap" charger doesn't have that problem, nor does jumper cables.

I have one of those "good" chargers. If the battery is low enough, it
takes a "bad" charger to get it started. After a few minutes, I can
switch to that "good" charger.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"So far as I can remember, there is not one word
in the Gospels in praise of intelligence."
--Bertrand Russell

Joseph Meehan wrote:
Mitch wrote:
Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them
test it, but it sure sounds dead to me. How old is it.

6 years.

About what I thought. It's due.

But mommy I didn't know I wuz preggers...

On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:58:10 -0500, Mark Lloyd
wrote:


"Good" chargers won't turn on until they see a little voltage from the
battery. It keeps the thing from shorting out if you just touch the
leads together. I think it is really because the charge monitor uses
the voltage from the battery to bootsrtrap itself up.
A "cheap" charger doesn't have that problem, nor does jumper cables.

I have one of those "good" chargers. If the battery is low enough, it
takes a "bad" charger to get it started. After a few minutes, I can
switch to that "good" charger.

Hilarious. It's a good thing you have two of them.
--
Mark Lloyd

Of course, it would be nice to know the voltage of the battery
with the terminals unconnected, and the charger removed. Sounds
like it froze last winter. If the battery voltage is less than 8
volts, it's likely never going to come back from the dead.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
:
:
: Are you by chance not connecting the charger directly to the
battery
: terminals, but perhaps through another path like plugging it
into a
: cigarette lighter socket?
:
: If so, then look for a blown fuse in the cigarette lighter
feed.
:
: If you ARE connecting directly to the battery's terminals and
it's still
: not drawing any current from the charger, then chances are good
that one
: of the internal straps connecting the cells in series has
snapped loose,
: i.e. the battery is junque. A battery which isn't broken but
just won't
: "hold a charge" will draw SOME current from a charger.
:
: Jeff
:
: --
: Jeffry Wisnia
: (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
: The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
:

"Stormin Mormon" wrote in
:

Of course, it would be nice to know the voltage of the battery
with the terminals unconnected, and the charger removed. Sounds
like it froze last winter. If the battery voltage is less than 8
volts, it's likely never going to come back from the dead.


It would be nice to know if there's any electrolyte left in it,too.

some "maintenance-free" batteries are really not,they have caps that can be
removed to top up the cells with distilled water.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

In article , Jim Yanik wrote:

some "maintenance-free" batteries are really not,they have caps that can be
removed to top up the cells with distilled water.

There is no such thing as a maintenance-free battery -- only
maintenance-PROOF.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

Tekkie® wrote:
Joseph Meehan wrote:
Mitch wrote:
Well you could bring it into the auto parts store and let them
test it, but it sure sounds dead to me. How old is it.

6 years.

About what I thought. It's due.

But mommy I didn't know I wuz preggers...

Told ya to clean that toilet seat before you sat on it.

--
Pork: It's the other white flag!
-- James Lileks

Most true thing I've read on Usenet all day.

Both the battery, and the tea.

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Doug Miller" wrote in message
et...
:
: There is no such thing as a maintenance-free battery -- only
: maintenance-PROOF.
:
: --
: Regards,
: Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
:
: It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:44:43 -0400, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

Of course, it would be nice to know the voltage of the battery
with the terminals unconnected, and the charger removed. Sounds
like it froze last winter. If the battery voltage is less than 8
volts, it's likely never going to come back from the dead.

Well, my garage is heated, so it never froze.
But I wasn't as good about starting and running it as I should have
been.

In any case, I replaced it, and all is well.