[AT] Batteries

[Jerry Rhodes]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 8:16 PM
Subject: [AT] Batteries


> I need to put one of those desulfating (sp?) chargers on my 
> fall wish list. Thanks for mentioning it Don G.
> I have always said that at least a fourth of the batteries 
> that are replaced are because of bad connections. People 
> hear that slow RRRRrrrrRRRRRrrrr....... and think their 
> battery is shot. They go to Wally World and get a new one 
> and trade in the old one. Sure enough it fires right up so 
> they tell them selves the old battery was actually done for. 
> It never occurs to many of them that the terminals were not 
> making good connections and that the old battery may 
> actually be down because even when a surge load like a 
> starter might feed through that the charge from the 
> alternator may not have been getting through for days and 
> the connection can fail rapidly when it gets started 
> corroding. Back when I was selling batteries I never bought 
> new batteries for my use. Enough good batteries were brought 
> in for trade-in that I stayed well supplied. Sometimes they 
> didn't even need charging, sometimes a charge was needed but 
> they held it fine after I charged them. At about that time 
> we were also collecting (buying) batteries for recycling. 
> Many of those were still quite good as well. I have always 
> been a little surprised by how many people do not have a 
> battery charger, I consider it a standard part of owning a 
> motor vehicle. Those of us that tinker with old tractors and 
> stuff are of course much more likely to think in terms of 
> connections and such than the guys or gals that never lift a 
> hood. Most of them need to have very good jobs to either 
> keep new cars or pay for someone else to make all the little 
> repairs on an older one. The days of cheap shop labor are 
> pretty much gone, too much overhead.
> Most of the time when someone walks into a service center 
> of any kind and says "I think I need a new battery" they get 
> a new battery. Better shops do check to see that the system 
> is charging but many just pull the old battery and install 
> the new one without testing anything. I have a friend that 
> has worked in a Sears auto center forever and most of the 
> employees use old batteries from customers cars. They just 
> turn in an old dud from home to replace the customers 
> trade-in in the stack of old batteries waiting for recycling.
> 
> My electrical mantra...
> Check the grounds, check the grounds, check the grounds... 
>    :-)  There are always 2 conductors. + and -   one is a 
> wire, the other is the vehicle. Both are of equal 
> importance...  :-)
> -- 
> 
> 
> 
> "farmer"
> 
> My latest list "No Nonsense Horse" (includes donkeys & mules).
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NoNonsenseHorse/
> 
> 
> 
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson at svs.net
> 
> 
> 
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