Shorted battery (?) question

[Richard]

I've got a battery that HAS been fine, used to start my backhoe. It's getting a bit long in tooth but works.

Some idiot that's working on his king pin, needed to raise the loader, turned machine on and when he killed the machine, left the key turned on..... dead battery.

By the way, that idiot would of course, be me.

Put charger on for while....I need to start machine for 30 seconds to simply raise the bucket again.... put charger on, let it sit for maybe 10 minutes then crank it to the start circuit.

Machine didn't have enough juice to start yet so Jumped off machine to unplug charger, lift the positive off the battery (all I can reach) it sparked a bit but all was as normal otherwise.

Here is where I am not 100% sure what I did.... in my mind, I "know" I reattached things, then put the charger back on starting at 2 amps.... what I might have done is hit the switch other direction which takes it immediately to starting amps (something like 200?? I don't recall)

None the less... nothing did anything. This isn't right, so jumped off machine to unplug charger, disconnected battery and it didn't give me a tiny spark like it usually does.

I reattach things, turn charger on and now, the needle on it is simply bouncing to FULL right, and back, FULL right and back...I turn it off it stops.

Turn it back on, FULL right, back, FULL right and back.... it's bouncing like a ball.

This isn't normal, this likely isn't good.

I am presuming I've shorted a plate in the battery and wondering if that would make sense given this highly technical description!?

 

[k0ua]

Possibly... When yo put your voltmeter on the battery sitting idle what does it read? Now put a load on the battery like the headlights, what does it read.. Step 3... go to town and buy yourself a new battery... When you run the old battery down in the first place, you likely ruined it. Lead acid starting batterys, DO NOT tolerate full run down very well. OLD lead acid starting battery's, nearly always go **** up when abused in such a manner. But you knew that already.

 

[Richard]

Yeah...the only mitigating factor is, my brother in law gave me this battery. It came (I think) out of his truck or something when he bought another one. It's worked fine and since the machine is such a quick starter (with a full charge) it's worked well.

Kicking myself for leaving the key turned on.... it wasn't dead, it was D.E.A.D.

Well...in a way that's ok....I was anticipating buying a new battery, looks like that time has come upon me.

 

[k0ua]

Look at it this way. You got some good service out of it for nothing for some time. Yes, you made some mistakes on this battery, BUT you were anticipating replacing it soon anyway. Well, that time just came a little sooner that's all. No problem. With a nice new battery, you will have a much more reliable cranking tractor .. all good..

 

[Richard]

Yep, got new battery in my car. Forgot to pull old one out for core charge....so will flip them soon & get that done.

I've never seen the needle on the charger bounce to full right, zero, full right and on.... did NOT give me any good feelings, so I'm glad it's dead & soon to be gone!!

 

[rScotty]

Yep, got new battery in my car. Forgot to pull old one out for core charge....so will flip them soon & get that done.

I've never seen the needle on the charger bounce to full right, zero, full right and on.... did NOT give me any good feelings, so I'm glad it's dead & soon to be gone!!

Sounds like you were seeing the charger's circuit breaker cycling on & off. That would indicate a direct short in the battery.

 

[skipperbrown]

Or the battery charger could be confused. Try again with the charger in the minimum charge position and see if it will take a charge. Try another charger if you have one. Once batteries reach a really low state of charge, some chargers have difficulty reading the battery. That said, it sounds like you gave your old battery a fatal heart attack and it died.

 

[Richard]

I did try with charger in minimum (2 amp) position. Don't have another charger.

I must say.....this battery was probably as close to zero as you can get! (I left key on for couple days...... TWICE!)

Machine is parked for some repairs so I was running it from standing to the side. I don't leave the key on when I'm actually using the machine.

It will be nice to start from scratch with new good battery AND my broken wire in the harness fixed (last year). after we discovered the broken wire (which explains why it wasn't charging for 10 years), I replaced the (then dead) battery with one my brother in law gave me which was an old battery out of his truck.

So now, I have a new battery.....re-spliced wire in the harness so it's actually charging now.

Life should be good! (once I can get the A_)(&*)^Y{EP$TOJK King Pin out of the axle to replace it with a new one. I never knew how obtuse a king pin could be.

 

[radios1]

A_)(&*)^Y{EP$TOJK King Pins are probably made in China..

 

[CoyPatton]

If your battery charger has electronic controlled circuitry in it, it could be reading too little charge in the battery for the charger to send out a charge. This control is very common to be present in a charger that is 15 yrs old or newer.
The battery may have died in the being ran down really low process. On batteries (auto starting anyway) for 10+ years if it lasted longer than its warranty period, you did well, I would guess that most died before the end of warranty (prorate period).
Try your charger on a battery that is starting a vehicle to insure it was not damaged, but my bet is the battery gave its last.