I might have a lessons learned situation

jinman · Oct 19, 2009

JC, I'm not sure what type of battery is in my portable jumper (nicad, gellcell, SLA), but it charges from a plug-in power supply almost like a cellphone. Mine has a button I can push that will light up a series of lights to tell me the level of charge. I can leave it a long time (over a month) and only the top light will not light, so the charge must be maintained pretty well. The nicest thing about these units is they come with jumper cables built in and everything is packaged in a nice neat unit. Some also have a flashlight and emergency flashers built-in in case you need to air up a tire on the shoulder of the road and don't have enough hands to hold a light and attach the shrader valve to the valve stem.

If you've ever grabbed your spare to find out it has a slow leak and is flat, you'll appreciate having the compressor feature. My wife had a slow leak in a tire and was able to air it up and get to a tire repair shop without needing assistance or to change a flat in a parking lot. I guess I think of mine like an electric "Swiss army knife" I carry in my vehicle.

JC-jetro · Oct 19, 2009

Jim,

They are all great points. I do have couple small 12 volt compressors that I occasionally had to use. I also bought a small, I guess 3 gall, 110 v compressor from HF that I have in the jeep, additionally I have a 5 gallon tank that I put air in it , about 95 psi and have it in the barn. I'm going to buy one the charger starter as well. I'm going to research it a bit,one of the guys EE at work said He did not believe that portable starter have a battery and actually have some capacitor to hold enough charge for a few starts... don't know for sure. I'm thinking something portable like that along with acid bouncing around might not be very safe, unless they use a different technology rather than lead-acid battery.

I hate to worry to maintain another very occasionally used battery.

JC,

ps. I got off work couple of hrs ago and checked the battery, the voltage is okay (12.7) and after being on charge all night still could not start the jeep. I took the lead off the jeep battery and jumped the jeep with the tractor battery, all it did was to rattle the solenoid.

jinman · Oct 19, 2009

JC-jetro said:
ps. I got off work couple of hrs ago and checked the battery, the voltage is okay (12.7) and after being on charge all night still could not start the jeep. I took the lead off the jeep battery and jumped the jeep with the tractor battery, all it did was to rattle the solenoid.

It sounds like what I call a "pseudo charge" or "surface" charge but it can't supply full current. I'd bet a specific gravity test would show which cell is bad, but you might as well take it back and let Wally World figure it out.

JC, I think one of my jumper batteries is a gel-cell and the other may be nicad or SLA. There is no danger of any leakage and I've had one for almost 12 years that still works perfectly. As a matter of fact, the plastic shields where I'm supposed to clip the jumper cables when in stowage are broken and I clip them onto the carry handle. I'm kinda cheap and I just can't bring myself to toss something that works so well. This particular model is sold by Harbor Freight at around $50, but has no light or compressor. The one I bought for my wife was around $75 and has all the "bells and whistles." It's the one sold at Sam's Club. Both of them are pretty heavy and you can tell it's a heavy battery inside. It's NOT a capacitor. I swear, with no other battery, I clipped my jumper battery onto my tractors battery cables, ran the glow plugs through their cycle, and started the tractor. If I had a better connection than the jumper alligators, I'd bet the engine would have spun at normal start speed. It was only slightly less.

My instructions with the jumper battery said not to try and charge it by leaving it attached for a long time after the vehicle is running. If you do that, you may feel the battery getting warm. I'm sure they don't want to take a chance on the battery overheating. If it's a nicad, you can even get thermal runaway if the charge current is too high. The little plug-in charger is very easy to use on 110 VAC. I just plug it in and charge it overnight. It's fully charged in 8 hours or less.

EDIT: Oh yes. . . the one I bought for my wife has a disconnect switch that you throw and the terminals are disconnected so there is no danger of a short if the leads get together. That's another great safety factor my old standby doesn't have.

JC-jetro · Oct 20, 2009

Thanks Jim,

I add buying a portable charger on my "to do list ", or " holidays gift to self list"

. My needs are not immediate as I will put my tractor in hibernation for winter. This evening after work I'll stop at wallmart to get a replacement and hopefully I can get away for few hrs on Friday morning to test it out. Will report my findings then... Hopefully, it would not be a dead starter

.

Funny thing is my son's car battery is going kaput as well, it's 7 years old and starts with a a bit of hesitation when it is cold out there. Charging system works fine other wise. I think they load test the battery on the car. Well, that's cost of doing business and I'm glad I have steady and gainful employment

JC,

Soundguy · Oct 20, 2009

Yep.. 5yr old bat?

I'd repalce and then also replace the bat terminals.. if they are loose enough to wiggle.. they are a bad connection.

bad connections make smoke.. ( same with brushes! ).

try that then post back.

soundguy

JFS2295 said:
As you probably know the battery sulfated from not being "exercised" every once in a while. Even a charger will help.

Rather then worrying about the starter, I'm going to say that the smoke came from some arcing between the clamp and starter terminal.

Batteries should be in the circuit as a dampener to some chargers non-pure DC voltage.

ComputerGuy · Oct 20, 2009

Did you get it working again? I did something like that, too. I used a battery charger in the 25 amp "start" setting -- started the tractor, but when I shut it off it would not start again -- I did not even get any lights. In my case, I ended up replacing the voltage regulator (broken terminal on the connector) and I had to replace a connector under the dash because it was broken too -- actually I had to make one from auto parts because no one had anything similar for sale, even at the NH dealer. I learned a lot about the electrical circuit on the tractor, though!

Hope I am not throwing out any red herrings!

Lest I forget, I still had trouble getting reliable starts -- but if I stuck to it I would get it to crank. One cloudy day I was going through the drill when I saw something fly from the engine while the starter was spinning. I went and got my wife to crank it and sure enough, one of the terminals on the starter was loose, but it was covered in rubber so it did not look loose. A few seconds with a small wrench and the connect was tight and my problem went away. The good news with a 1910 is that you can see everything (unlike a car) except for the stuff buried under the instrument panel, and you can take that loose in about five minutes if you have to...

JC-jetro · Oct 21, 2009

ComputerGuy said:
Did you get it working again? ...

Not yet, I went or wally world last night and got the battery replaced. It had a dead cell and still had about $30 worth of warranty left in it. Most likely I'll give it a go on Friday and will report back.

JC,

rayikeo2 · Oct 21, 2009

JC, if it still has problems starting after replacing the battery do a good cleaning of the ground cable at both ends, the battery terminal and also where it connects to the tractor. You may even have to replace the woven wire ground cable. Those things get corroded inside and don't show it. Replacement makes a good improvement of keeping the battery in shape.

JC-jetro · Oct 21, 2009

rayikeo2 said:
JC, if it still has problems starting after replacing the battery do a good cleaning of the ground cable at both ends, the battery terminal and also where it connects to the tractor. You may even have to replace the woven wire ground cable. Those things get corroded inside and don't show it. Replacement makes a good improvement of keeping the battery in shape.

Ray,

Thanks for your input. My initial look did not reveal any rusting on cables or the connectors at all as this tractor never sat out outside for extended period. Before I put the new battery in, I'll check it all out and wire brush, repair or replace as it needs. Everything worked perfectly fine till battery died. The only concern I have is connecting "starter/charger directly without a battery dead or alive in the circuit". from all the inputs I received from the gang here I think I might have a " none Issue" other than a dead battery.

JC,