1066 Battery Dying While Sitting?

   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #1  

danmcd

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2022
Messages
3
Tractor
International 1066
Hello and thanks in advance for any help you can offer. I have a 1066 that is in excellent running/cosmetic condition. I'm having a continuous issue with the batteries bleeding down to nothing after it sits for a relatively short period of time. I have to unhook the battery terminals each time I am not using the tractor for a day or two to prevent this from happening. I know it must be some sort of short or grounding issue but I don't know where to start looking. Any ideas from the experts?? Thanks.
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #2  
I had a brand new skidsteer in 2009 that the dealer told me to keep the battery disconnected, or else it would drain. He didn't say why. He was correct, so I kept it disconnected.

Maybe five years later, I had to replace the alternator. For the heck of it, I stopped disconnecting the battery. It never drained after I changed out the alternator.

So....in my case, the alternator was draining my battery when it wasn't running.

For what it's worth.....
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #3  
Stop disconnecting the battery and get yourself a battery disconnect terminal that goes on the negative battery post. Makes a good theft deterrent item too.
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Thanks, so far I have not been able to find a battery disconnect that will work on this tractor. The battery posts are way too close the the sheet metal side enclosures but I'll keep looking. I will look into the alternator issue as well.
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #5  
Thanks, so far I have not been able to find a battery disconnect that will work on this tractor. The battery posts are way too close the the sheet metal side enclosures but I'll keep looking. I will look into the alternator issue as well.
Battery disconnect switches are pretty generic...



Personally I would hunt down and fix what is draining battery so you don't have to deal with any disconnect switches...
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #6  
Wire all accessories thru the ignition
rabbit.JPG
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #7  
If you remove a cable and reconnect it in a darker area can you see a spark,
if no visible spark you can use a meter on the amps scale to see if you do indeed have
a current draw.

If no current draw;
Are you using two 6 volt batteries in series?
If one battery gets a bad cell it will suck both batteries down.
If you have switched to two 12's could still be the same issue.
You can pull the fill caps off the cells and use a volt meter, testing voltage
from each cell to ground and you should see a continuous step in voltage through the system.
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #8  
Thanks, so far I have not been able to find a battery disconnect that will work on this tractor. The battery posts are way too close the the sheet metal side enclosures but I'll keep looking. I will look into the alternator issue as well.

Put your disconnect on the negative / ground terminal of the battery. If the switch, or negative terminal contacts the sheet metal, it’s no big deal, it’s already electrically contacted to the sheet metal through the neg ground cable.

Just make sure that when the switch is open, the “battery side” of the switch isn’t making contact to the sheet metal and bypassing the open switch or battery can still drain.

Using the ammeter function across the open switch, or from a disconnected battery cable to the battery terminal, will tell you how much current is leaking. (Hopefully less than your meter can measure)

Pulling fuses until you find the one that stops the leakage can also be useful.

[Additional info: the voltage across the open switch should match the voltage across the battery terminals, because electrically, although no current can flow through the open switch, the negative cable should have +12v on it , as as the voltage is continuous from the battery positive terminal through the leaking device. No current flow = no voltage drop. Unless it’s a leaking diode in an alternator or solid state relay, then things can measure weird as the meter’s characteristics come into play. But I digress. ]
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting? #9  
Parasitic draw test is what you need to do. There are several videos on youtube on how to do it.
 
   / 1066 Battery Dying While Sitting?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Thank you all so much. I'll start to track down the problem through your suggestions. It's great to have help available from experienced people. Thanks again and have a great 4th of July weekend.
 
 
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