It is the battery - Quick advice please!!!

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Bob...... I am not as old as your grandfather is or would be, but I have heard of dropping the battery. )</font>

I figured if anyone here would have heard of this it would be you. You always amaze me with the diversity of knowledge you display. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( wrapping the battery with a strand of the small Christmas tree lights and plug them in to warm the battery... Seems like a bright idea, )</font>

A bright idea , huh? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Junkman]

When I lived in NH, I hung around with a older man that I worked for and he had friends that were older than him. I learned a lot of the old timer tricks while sitting around the old wood stove drinking percolated coffee that was only one step below tar. I had bought a 1926 Buick back then and wanted to learn as much about fixing it as I could. Some of these guys were old enough to remember buying them new and one of them still had one that he bought new in his garage. Started to turn a wrench when I was so young that I had to stand on a wooden milk box just to see into the engine compartment. Was very good about getting things apart, but putting them back together took a little longer... maybe till I was about 8 or 9.... I just woke up one morning and realized that I was old, but never realized when it had happened. I remember my father telling about the horse and buggy's that he used to use before a lot of people had cars .... My wife claims that I was born under a fender..... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I will admit that I am not an "old bird"...... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Rowski]

Usually the indicator (green dot) is showing the condition of the cell it is located in. Not the condition of the whole battery. At least in automotive batteries.

 

[r0GuE]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( This Rogue guy has his priorities mixed up. He want s al 'el cheapo battery and drives a Jeep Rubicon. What gives??)</font>

Worse than wanting an el cheapo battery,.. I didn't want to buy a new battery at all. In the past I was pretty fluid with the dollars, but with baby number 3 on the way, and a stay at home mom at the helm, I am learning to be a little more intelligent in how I spend money.

The Rubicon isn't really any more expensive than most mid size cars. In fact, it's much less expensive than most (I got out the door with tax and all for $25k). This was my first American car ever, and to my way of thinking was the most American car I could buy. I've become very jaded against foreign nations now (but that’s another story).

ANYWAY!... The charger did the trick! The tractor started right up and ran like a top! (though it was warmer today). I’m sure removing the corrosion helped too. That baking soda trick worked great. Kind of cool the way it bubbled up.

Thanks to ALL for the EXCELLENT advice. I saved myself ~$50 and was able to push the TONS of snow without a problem. Man are we getting hammered here in PA. We are supposed to get more today and more tonight... and they are talking about a storm coming in later this week! It is very satisfying to see the 5 foot mounds of snow the BX moved sitting in the driveway. By the way, my retired neighbor thanks you all as well, because I have become his driveway man. Do it once and it’s yours for life I guess. Oh well, got to have a few checks on the good side when you’re standing at the gates.

Off to work!

 

[Pks]

Rogue,

Glad to hear things are working properly now. The fact that the baking soda bubbled up when cleaning the battery case tells us that there was some acid present. The baking soda neutralizes the SO4 (battery acid).

If possible, just to be sure everyting is safe, can you visually inspect all 6 sides of the battery case? Your looking for cracks. This idea is just to make certain that the acid you found did not leak through the side of the case. Also look for damaged/pealing/bubbled paint under the battery case.

Oh, one more thought; now that the terminals are real clean, spray them with a battery dressing agent. If you don't have one, put a light coating of vaseline over the metal of the clamps and terminal. But not between the clamp and terminal. The vaseline will prevent future corosion.

During the summer months, consider washing the battery whenever you fill the fuel tank. Grass and dirt will allow voltage to leak out out between the terminals.

Oh and try the dropping technique too. I'd forgotten about that one. Just drop it once, flat on its bottom, on the garage floor. Do this when the case is nice and warm. It does make a difference. Unless there is too much corrosion and the plates short out to the bottom of the case.

 

[Junkman]

Rogue........ don't do the battery dropping or you will have a cracked battery and it will do no good..... battery construction has changed just a tiny bid since the 1920's.... about 2000%!!!! The new batteries don't have any room under the plates to even consider this. You will damage the battery beyond repair. That is why batteries have hold downs now days.... to eliminate the jarring that kills them....
Glad to hear that it worked out for you..

 

[Pks]

Junkman,

Are you certain there's no room at the bottom?

In 1990, I had two 590 CCA batteries that had a ton of room on the bottom. I was able to bring one back to life by repeatedly dropping it lightly on the floor. The case was white and nearly see through; I could easily see the pile of flakes at the bottom. So I then sloshed the flakes to be flat on the bottom. ...worked like a charm!

Maybe the point here is to be careful about our generalities that involve non-standard repair tricks. So I'll retract my statement about dropping the battery lightly on the garage floor.

 

[RalphVa]

Sounds as though your battery may be back to life.

Have some jumper cable handy though.

My experience with cheap batteries (e.g. $10-20 variety) is they're only good for one year. Most batteries are good for 5 years. In fact, I recently replaced 2 that were right at 5 years on my Gravely and on my VW.

I wash all my batteries, in fact my car and tractor engines, with plain water. If there's some significant oil fouling, I'll spray it first with Simple Green, Purple Solution or Orange stuff. Clean batteries won't lose any current across the dirt surface, even if they're wet. Wet dirt will conduct current away though.

Ralph

 

[r0GuE]

Anybody have any info on which batteries are best? I remeber a good oil filter review where the guy cut them open and did some good quantifiable analysis. I wonder if there is any good battery reviews out there.

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Junkman,

Are you certain there's no room at the bottom?

In 1990, I had two 590 CCA batteries that had a ton of room on the bottom. I was able to bring one back to life by repeatedly dropping it lightly on the floor. The case was white and nearly see through; I could easily see the pile of flakes at the bottom. So I then sloshed the flakes to be flat on the bottom. ...worked like a charm!

Maybe the point here is to be careful about our generalities that involve non-standard repair tricks. So I'll retract my statement about dropping the battery lightly on the garage floor. )</font>

You make a good point about generalities... the white plastic cased batteries were / are a better quality battery and they might have had / have a larger area under the plates. Most of the newer black plastic batteries don't have the space, because the plates are manufactured differantly and are made out of differant materials than of the past. This is the reason that they last longer, but when the go, they go all at once. Gel Cell batteries are another type of battery that is coming up in popularity among the manufacturers. I know some, but not a lot about them. Seems that they are the way of the future, just as flashlight batteries have evolved....