Standard lead acid battery. Trickle charger works, arcs when the leads touch, and was hooked up properly (pos to pos, neg to neg)

On Sunday Mike and Jim came over to work on the bus, so I was playing with my car.

I put the battery back into it - the same one that we had been running Mikes Bus engine with. It turned over my starter and got my car started w/o trouble.

We had been running the battery for a while when testing Mikes engine, so I thought it would be a good idea to put it on a trickle charger to charge up. The charger has been on the battery for about 48 hours - 2 days.

A few minutes ago I wander outside and decide to start my car just o hear it run and do some quick tuning before I went back to work. I turn the key a little to let the fuel pump fill the carb bowls, and my voltmeter is reading 14v. I turn the key, and get the dreaded "klik klik klik" of a starter which does not have enough juice to fire. The voltmeter dropped down to ~8v as soon as load was applied.

I just put it back on the trickle charger back on and cam back in to keep working. The battery is under 1 year old, and worked fine Sunday. What killed it?

Zach

Did you look inside the cells to make sure they had liquid?

I have had a float charger on my dirtbike battery for the last two years, fired right up a week ago. 2 days shouldn't kill it at all in small amps. I've had two car batteries die within a year though, dam plates broke loose, no warning at all. No more motorcraft batteries for me.

A well designed one shouldn't, but I have seen cases where the trickle chargers would boil the fluid out of the batteries.

The solar charger in my parents motorhome did the same thing when they left it sitting for a year.

I went out to check the fluid and noticed that the grounding cable was loose. Tightened that back down and the problem was fixed.

Its fantastic outside, but I burned up my play time. Back to work.

Zach

Yes.

A proper battery maintainer should not boil a battery and should cut on and off as needed. A trickle charger keeps charging and should not be left on past a full charge.

I realize some people call maintainers trickle chargers, but there is a difference.

Hope I didn't just state the obvious.

We bought a case of these and hooked up all of the cars last fall for the winter. Everything has started right up everytime.

http://batterytender.com/automotive/batter...v-at-0-75a.html

batterytender is the way to go. I saw a piece on My Classisc Car a few months ago that explained everything.

Yes...........if there is no battery water in the cells!

I use this on all the bikes
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=42292
never cooked one yet.

Battery Tender FTMFW!

I started my 911 up on Sunday so I could move the Acura into the garage for an oil change. It cranked over as if I had just parked it yesterday. I bought the 2 unit with extension cords and mounted it on the ceiling between the cars. I'll probably get another one to keep the John Deere ready to go, as well as any two wheeled vehicles that might find their way into my garage.