I took a look this morning. Lot's of lovely blue fuzz around both battery
terminals. The bolt for the positive clamp broke as I was trying to loosen
it so I need at the minimum a new bolt for it.
Multimeter shows 12.57V. Now I just have to figure out how to get the
battery somewhere for a load test (the Dak is my only vehicle.)
Roger
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net
[mailto:owner-dakota-truck@bent.twistedbits.net] On Behalf Of
jon@dakota-truck.net
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:06 PM
To: dakota-truck-moderator@bent.twistedbits.net
Subject: Re: DML: Old member back with a problem
Roger Heim <rheim10@optonline.net> wrote:
[...]
> At first I thought I blew a fuse but then I started thinking the
> battery gave out (it's about 3 years old.) But don't batteries slowly
> fade away until one day they don't have enough amps to crank?
> Anyone got any thoughts about where to look first?
Hi Roger,
The battery would be my primary suspect. Although a battery can fade
over time, it is really, really common for them to just go without warning.
Could be a cell shorted out, etc. What you are describing sounds like a bad
battery or a bad connection at the battery to me. I had a similar situation
in my Jeep Cherokee; I thought the battery was starting to go on me, as it
would sometimes not start the vehicle. I had one of those quick disconnect
negative battery terminals on there, and come to find out, it had broken,
and was causing an unreliable connection. A similar thing recently happened
to my '70 Dart, except this was corrosion inside the positive battery
terminal connector. Had enough power to run the dash lights, headlights,
etc. but everything would go dead when I turned the key.
I was fortunate enough to notice some crackling noises at the battery
terminal, so I took the connector apart, cleaned out the corrosion, and the
car fired right up.) Something like that could be the problem, where the
electrical path from the vehicle to the battery is just too small to carry
the amperage required, but the odds are also extremely good that the battery
itself just bought the farm.
Stick a multimeter on it and see what it says; if its 10v or less, that's
your answer, but even if the multimeter gives you a good reading (12.5v or
so), that doesn't clear the battery just yet - it needs to have a load test
done. If you don't have a load tester (you can pick them up for $20 or so
from time to time), a parts store will usually perform a load test for you
for free.
Good luck with it! I think you'll find that its the battery; let us know
how it turns out...
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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