OP
wxtrendsguy
Member
Update...battery was fine, gounding cable was barely loose and connectors had some rust and corrosion. Cleaned them all up and reassembled and good to go!
Assuming battery but thought I'd ask the experts
- Thread starter wxtrendsguy
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CH4Ohio
Veteran Member
Nice job! Thanks for the update!
etpm
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Thanks for the update. It seems like most bad battery problems are actually bad connection problems, usually the ground cable. When you suspect a suddenly bad battery you should always check connections.
Eric
grsthegreat
Super Star Member
Yup…that will do it. If you can find it at napa, get some Noco brand spray on battery protector. Works great. I use it on all my generator service calls and since i started using it, i no longer get all the acid buildup crap on the terminals. I also use the treated felt rings.
I had that same kind of problem. Turned out that starter motor needed rebuilding! First major repair (and it was less than $100, btw) on my 2009 BX. Factory battery lasted nearly 14 years! I was amazed. Or course, when it sat over the winter, it had to be recharged but that only happened a couple of times...
Little Red Tractor
Platinum Member
I would double down on checking the cables. Then, if you have a charger, put a charge in the battery and give it a try again. Trickle chargers are slow, but they're not expensive and handy to keep batteries up when not using the machine for a long period of time. Battery tenders are also pretty handy and tend to give batteries a longer life.
My Kioti recently did the same thing. After ruling out the battery by swapping to a known good battery I checked the fuse in the starting circuit and the starter relay. Both were good. I ohmed out the wiring and had a bad positive battery cable. The wire had corrosion inside the post clamp.
SARG
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I decided about 30 years ago the one item I do not mess with is the batteries on our 2 vehicles ... 4 garden tractors and 2 diesel tractors.
I have a load tester and a test unit that measures the residule CCA the battery has ........ any indication it is on the way out it gets replaced.
Further story ... Last month I took the '07 Pacifica to get inspected and when "Scott" started the car after hooking up the inspection cable he said " Watch that battery ... it's on the way out".
I went home and tested the 800 CCA battery I put in 2019 ... It measured about 450 CCA. I changed it out the following day. And just to mention.... the brand new ... fully charged 800 CCA battery measured 740 CCAs.
I have a load tester and a test unit that measures the residule CCA the battery has ........ any indication it is on the way out it gets replaced.
Further story ... Last month I took the '07 Pacifica to get inspected and when "Scott" started the car after hooking up the inspection cable he said " Watch that battery ... it's on the way out".
I went home and tested the 800 CCA battery I put in 2019 ... It measured about 450 CCA. I changed it out the following day. And just to mention.... the brand new ... fully charged 800 CCA battery measured 740 CCAs.
Last edited:
DGF
Member
Sounds like it was a victum of leakage either into the tractor or self discharge. Either way a charger and even a jump won't always bring it back.
Better chargers have the ability to cycle in a way that breaks up the oxides that form on the plates when deeply discharged and sometimes recover the battery. An example charger is the harbor freight red Viking 4A charger. I mention this one or others like it because it offers dual 6/12V charing profiles and it has the restore cycle feature.
In this situation the charger would get plugged into AC power and set to 6V before connecting to the 12V battery. Let it charge until it stops charging for any reason, typically just a few minutes. Then disconnect one side from the battery, wait 20-30 seconds and reconnect. Keep doing this until a voltage builds on the battery. It may take several manual reconnects to get it to a level where the charger will recognize it as a low 12V battery so push it above 4V and toward 6V if you can. Once there reconnect the charger again but this time in 12V mode. At this point they will usually charge all the way but you may have to cycle it in 12V as well. If/when it does accept a charge, run the battery through a few full but normal charge/discharge cycles to reform the plates and if you have a higher power charger like 10A, use that one. The higher charge current will help the battery recover.
The last step.. Once the battery appears to have recovered get a good battery tester on it and read the internal impedance. The number should ideally be in the single digit milli-ohm range but a 4 year old battery that has had some hard times will likely be in the 10s of mill-ohms. If it is approaching 100+ milli-ohms its on it's way out so just be careful in the cold weather so you don't get left high and dry and you may even want to have a fresh one on standby ready to go.
I've used this technique many times over the years with a good recovery success although not 100%. Some batteries are too far gone and those take a few special tricks if they ever come back at all. Also, if your batt is a liquid filled check the levels before you begin charging and again as the battery recovers.
