HiYa Whisker-
Does your GEN or ALT have a fan belt tensioner attached? If not, you will never charge the battery without proper fan belt tension. It sounds like you have a weak or
dead battery. A trickle charger just isnt going to fix that. A trickle charger if left unattended will boil out the battery. Once you boil out the electrolyte, you
cant just add more it doesnt work that way. Get the battery tested at a trusty, local shop.
You need a strong battery to:
1. Spin the starter
2. Engage the Bendix
3. Provide voltage to the coil.
As the battery gets weaker, the first thing to fail is your spark. The more current you use to spin the starter, the less you have for the ignition. If your starter
pulls the battery down only a few volts, it will not fire the ignition system. It doesn't really matter much if the battery is fully charged until you test it
correctly. Bench testing under load at a shop and specific gravity can be tested as well. Your trusty local starter/alternator shop can bench test it on their special
machine, usually at no charge no pun intended. No matter what else you do, the battery must be fully charged.
Simply connecting your basic trickle charger will not do much, if anything, when the battery loses or has lost its specific gravity. The worse thing that kills battery
life is the constant charging and discharging on the lead plates. Your local shop guy has a special testing machine for the battery and can tell in a minute if it will
sustain a charge under load or not. Specific Gravity must be met. Read about it in the ELECTRICAL Chapter in your Owner's/Operator's Manual and I&T FO-47 Manual.
Specific Gravity can be tested with an HYDROMETER. It is a hand held device resembling a large hypodermic needle only has bulb with a half dozen small colored balls in
a solution of Acetone. You pull a cap on battery and take a sample of liquid with it. The included chart tells the results. Some auto parts stores sell them right on
their counter. I prefer the shop machine method of testing as it will tell a lot more.
If the battery tests bad, wont charge, sustain a charge under load, invest in a new one. Briefly in a nutshell, you want a GP-25 or GRP-35 12V AG battery -no Deep
Cycle or RV/Gold cart type. I suggest you invest in one of the better brands like DEKA, INTERSTATE, EAST PENN/DURACELL, or EXIDE. Most of the cheaper, bargain house
brands are not worth the time or money as they have poor lifespans. Two years or less has been my experience. 7-10 years on a good brand. Get at least a 550 - 650
CCA.
The best thing you can do to prolong a battery is also invest in a float charger. A float charger is helpful; not a trickle charger, but a float charger, like the
DELTRAN Battery Tender a well tested and proved. A battery charger, even a trickle charger, left unattended will eventually boil out a battery. I use float
chargers for two reasons: battery longevity and a sure start. Battery sulfation occurs at a specific rate at X temperature. Over time, sulfation reduces battery
performance and eventually its effects are irreversible. Sulfation of batteries starts when specific gravity falls below 1.225 or voltage measures less than 12.4 for a
12v battery, or 6.2 for a 6 volt battery. Sulfation hardens on the battery plates reducing and eventually destroying the ability of the battery to generate current.
Using a float charger significantly reduces sulfation. Your battery loses 33 percent of its power when the temperature dips below freezing, and over 50 percent of its
power when the temperature falls below zero. A fully charged battery will not freeze until -76F; however, a fully discharged battery can start to freeze at 32F. So
keep the battery fully charged! If you have a digital volt meter, 6.03 volts on a 6 volt battery and 12.06 volts on a 12 volt battery is only a 25% charge!
TESTING BATTERY ELECTROLYTE FOR SPECIFIC GRAVITY:
Tim Daley(MI)
