Yikes! what happened...

[StevenPaul]

Can anybody tell me why this would happen? EVerything was working great, told our daughter to take the Cushman to run a quick errand, she gets in, goes around the corner of the house and comes back saying "it's smoking and sizzling". I go over and take a look and this is what I see. Can I fix it or do I have to junk a good battery?

I have to admit this is kinda scary, will it happen again. The cart has been running great and this is the first time this has happened.

thanks!
Steve

 

[DieselPower]

I have seen this happen a couple of times on road truck/tractors before. Usually caused by a loose bolt/nut. The loose connection causes very high resistance and when a large load is applied it get's very hot and causes the post to melt off the battery.

Other thing's to check is the charging system to make sure it's not overcharging the system.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

Diesels right, lose connections cause serious overheating. I'd check all your electrical connections and replace the battery. You should be good then. I've seen this on the cushmans at work (their almost 20 yrs old) when the batterys aren't serviced.

Matt T.

 

[Kahuna]

I had something similar to a sealed battery in a 108 hp farm tractor. I was planting corn and it started to smell like rotten eggs. I got out of the cab to do a walk around and the battery was sizzeling and bulging out like it was going to explode. There were 2 batteries on the tractor hooked side by side. I repleaced both batteries and have not had any problems ever since, which has been several years ago. I suspect there was an internal short within the battery that caused the problem.

 

[patrick_g]

Your heating was most likely a bad connection at the post, not a bad battery. You may be able to drill and tap the remaining post of the battery and install a piece of all thread in the new threaded hole. Use that all thread and two nuts to secure the battery cable. Tighten the two nuts toward each other to clamp the terminal tightly. If you try to use the threads in the lead to hold against a tightened nut you may very well strip them out and invalidate your attempt to save 50-100$.

If you drill too deep (strike acid) or for any other reason can't make the jury rig work, the worst thing is you wasted a few minutes trying to save several $. The battery itself (except for the post) may still be just fine.

Pat