Battery Mystery

[salerno50]

Hi, folks. Question here. Last November I let my 78 Westy sit for a few weeks, then tried to start her. No dice. Tried to jump it but it wouldn't go. So I covered her up until last week, after the snow. I took the battery to the gas station and had it charged. Put the battery back in and Viola! Started. Now, however, two days later. Dead again.

BUT!!!!!! I hooked up my battery tender to the supposed dead battery and, after about five minutes, the battery tender says CHARGED AND MAINTAINING.

So...what the heck???

Maybe some of you kind peoples can school me here. Thanks again, in advance.

[salerno50]

I should add that in my recent attempt to start it, there was NOTHING happening (no lights of any kind, no crank, no nothing).

[MacLeod Willy]

Clean connections at the starter and ground strap first

[TomWesty]

Also, probably time for a new battery. They don't live very long after a few complete discharges.
_________________
If you haven't bled on them, you haven't worked on them.
Visit: www.tomcoryell.com and check out my music!

[busdaddy]

Letting a dead battery sit all winter is not good for it, dead batteries freeze and warp the cell plates or in extreme cases split open.
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[raygreenwood]

Sounds like a dead cell....or more than one. Probably calcium growth across a pair of plates. Ray

[blackivory69]

I just replaced one of my batteries for exact the same reason. Yes, you might have a dead cell in the battery.
_________________
1970 Double Cab. Stock engine (1600 SP)
1973 Thing (Mexican Safari)
1970 Karmann Ghia Convertible
1969 Buggy

[deronmoped]

Did they test it at the gas station after they charged it?

The battery should be fully charged, that is, put it on a charger for a day. Then a load tester should be used to test it. Also, you want to make sure the levels are all good in each cell.

[deronmoped]

Oh, also, that battery tender is only good for what it says it's for, tending a fully charged battery. It's not designed to recharge a battery, well, maybe, if you left it on there for a month.

[Mistersponge]

I've never had luck getting a battery tender to bring a battery back from the dead. However though, I have a few times used a jumper box to get the process started and us the battery tender to top it off.
_________________
1977 Westy

[salerno50]

Yeah, they tested it at the gas station before handing it back to me. I brought it right home and it fired up. Then two days later, nothing. The only mystery is that the tender said "charged and maintaining" (green pulsing light). That leads me to believe I've got something else going on. But I'm going to try to get the batter tested and charged. I only have a tender, and no car at the moment to get the battery charged/tested. I'll report back.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!!!

[Wildthings]

You probably have a phantom load on your electrical system that is running your battery down and you will continue to have problems with a dead battery until you find and eliminate the draw.

You might as well figure that your battery is shot. Try and get it to work again will likely cause a lot of outgassing which will eat up the metal of your battery compartment and any battery that is under par will put extra load on the starter and charging system costing you that much more money tomorrow. Buy a new top of the line battery, find and repair your draw, and enjoy tooling around in your dependable bus.

[Tcash]