Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Last night I thought I would start the 70' and warm her up as tomorrow she gets tags and I get to cruze after all the hard work. Well the Battery bit the bullet.

This would not be so bad but I bought it new 4 months ago and it only was putting out 12V & 11.5V with the lights on. (I only used it so far over the winter to warm up the truck, maybe 10 starts in total.) I called the guy today and told him and he said it probably just needed a good run. I put it on my charger and it shows it fully charged. Not enough candle pwr to hardly run my interior light.The old battery I took out of the truck I'm using in my 50' with no problems. I always disconnect the ground cable when not in use over the winter.

Am I missing something here or did I get a bum battery?

esll. :whine:

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

do you have a good ground???

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Yes to the front of my block .... nice and tight. Various smaller ground straps as well on the engine. You can hear the engine trying to turn over but just not enough juice to make it happen. New cables and new battery ends on the cables.

I put the battery on a charger last week as it did something similar and it started .... this week it's a no show.

esll.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

did you charge it up... or just hook it up and saw the guage said it was OK?

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

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The gauge (which is new) is under dash say's 12V, 11.5V with lights on. I went to charge the battery and the charger reads fully charged. But the battery is dead. Now if your talking about the charger I just hooked it up and it said it was ok and I never charged it up.

esll.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

just because you have wires that are supposed to be ground wires doesn't mean you have a good ground/ taking them apart cleaning and reinstalling assures a good ground/ / iin fact in your situation i'd be taking all the battery cables off cleaning them up real good both ends then reinstalling if the condition is ok or replacing if they look marginal then slow charge the battery overnight at start freash in the morning

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Also,you need to be aware that a 12 volt battery when fully charged should have 13.2 volts.If the battery shows above 12 it is usually good.When you get it started use a multi-meter and check what voltage is at the battery.It should be at least 13.2 uo to about 14.I agree that just because you have grounds don't mean they are grounding.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Yeah but as I previously posted I have new battery cables & ends with a new battery. Every thing is clean & tight.:(

esll.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

is it an optima if it is i use to work at autozone while back and they brought in a couple that use to do that when we tested them with no load but as soon as you put a load to it they would die down. try a low charge for 6-8 hours see how it goes should do the trick.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Trickle charge the battery overnight and try again tomorrow. Also disconnecting the battery will eliminate battery draw, but if it has been really cold in BC, the cold will also zap the charge. It also sounds like to me that the battery maybe weak or you may have a charging issue.

I would check that as well - Good Luck

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

I always though it was amperage that was needed to start, not voltage. If that makes sense. I agree with everyone else, charge that puppy up then try again.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Thanks guy's for all the help as usual your always there ready and willing.

Here's what I've done .... I took back the new battery to the local parts supplier and got my money back. Having said that I ordered a Delco Battery from the dealer and it will be here tomorrow. (I live on an Island so this has to come from the main land.) I'll get it load tested before I leave to confirm the condition of the battery.

The reason I bought the new battery to begin with is because my 70' is going to be driven more then anything that I've built in the past. The old battery from the 70' is in my 50' and works fine. (That Bites.) It now has a different engine and charging system so at this point the new battery is looking suspicious because the old battery worked in either truck.

Keep you posted ....

esll.

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

Bought new Delco battery, installed it and starts up great. My Volt. gauge say's I'm putting out 12V .... sould I be putting out more like 14v when it is running????

esll. :)

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

i fully charged battery is should read between 12.4-12.6 volts if you have a battery over 13 volts something is wrong at work any battery i test that had more then 12.7 volt always tested bad and yes you should be putting out more like 14.5 nothing higher then 15 volts

Re: Battery Suck The Big One!
 

yeah...you should be about 14 volts on-charge. put a volt meter on the battery with it running, just to makesure the gauge is accurate.

about a previous post (forgot to quote)...amperage is the ability to MAINTAIN voltage. if the starter requires more amps (old, high compression, ad nausium) than the battery can supply, THEN the voltage will drop below the minimum required.

to make it very simple...think of using a AAA battery and a D battery. both are 1.5 volts. the D battery will last longer under the same load, but both will run the same amount of time under their normal expected load.