Day #2 - Battery #2 (And it was odd)

[chim]

As I posted in the "What did you do to or on your Kubota today?" the Kubota received a new RK battery. Well, today was the Trailblazer's turn for a battery. Made one early and uneventful dash in the TB to take Sweet Pea to Kindergarten and planned to service the two generators (one gasoline and one diesel) when I got back.

After gathering a few things from the garage and tossing them in the back of the TB I hopped in and TRIED to twist the key. It was stuck/jammed and wouldn't turn. The shifter couldn't be moved. Nothing at all worked. There was a brief sound like a small electric motor running. My first thought was some linkage came apart in the steering column. I popped the top cover off and nothing looked loose. OK, should have checked the battery first so I'll do it next It was a Deka 778MF that was installed in June of 2019.

Went to put a voltmeter on the terminals of the battery to check it with no load and under load but noticed the negative battery terminal was hot. The cables connected to the negative terminal were pretty warm for the first couple of inches, but were cool farther away. The positive terminal and all other wiring was cool. I removed the battery and tried a few things with it.

I connected a spare amber "lollipop" (old tractor turn signal) to the battery and checked voltage. The meter read just a bit over 12V at no load. With the light connected it read a tad over 5v but started climbing. It topped out at 9.54V after about an hour and held there. The negative terminal didn't heat up with that minimal load. My best bud (another electrician of some repute) agreed that it appears the battery was in the midst of an internal crisis near the negative terminal. He said it would be interesting to pull the battery and see what happens when trying to run via jumpers from a healthy vehicle. OK, the Kubota gets to return yesterday's favor from the TB. When I went to retrieve the Kubota (after the normal wait for the glow pug light to go out) it started in 1/2 "ying". A ying is what sounds like the starter spinning the engine one revolution. That's notable. Since it came here about 6-1/2 years ago it started in 2 yings with few exceptions. Recently, and just prior to the new battery, that increased to 3 yings.

Anyway, with the jumpers from the Kubota, the TB did a few yings of its own and ran fine. After a quick Costco run for another 800CCA battery the TB was back to being happy.




L4240 repaying the Trailblazer the cup of electrons it borrowed yesterday:

 

[Nicksacco]

Great story!
I have a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer on which I think I've turned every bolt over the years keeping it going.

For those not familiar with a Trailblazer, the key gets locked in the ignition when the battery is dead (or perhaps close to death). I don't know why someone thought that was a great idea.

" My best bud (another electrician of some repute) agreed that it appears the battery was in the midst of an internal crisis near the negative terminal. " An "internal crisis", Hilarious!

 

[GeoHorn]

Don’t worry about the “Yings”….. Start worrying when your YANG …HANG s ….

As Willie reputedly wrote:

My nookie days are over,
my pilot light is out.
What used to be my pride and joy,
is now my water spout.
Time was when, on its own accord,
from my trousers it would spring.
But now I’ve got a full-time job,
to find the friggin’ thing.
It used to be embarrassing,
the way it would behave.
For every single morning,
it would stand and watch me shave.
Now, as old age approaches,
it sure gives me the blues.
To see it hang its little head,
and watch me tie my shoes.

 

[chim]

...................For those not familiar with a Trailblazer, the key gets locked in the ignition when the battery is dead (or perhaps close to death). I don't know why someone thought that was a great idea...............

This was something I only learned yesterday, and found it hard to believe even after experiencing it first-hand.

Not sure I mentioned this before (Wifey likes to tell me that I repeat things) but quite come time ago I discovered the side terminal batteries are tapped 3/8-16. That is handy for making good solid taps for powering other stuff. The factory bolts that are captive in the battery cable ends aren't sufficiently long to add much thickness to accommodate more terminal ends.

So I remove the factory bolts and use pieces of allthread, washers and nuts. A good coat of Penetrox or equal on everything and you're in business. Been doing this for the last several vehicles for winch power. The crimp lugs for 2/0 welding cable add too much thickness and don't allow the shorter factory bolts to engage the soft threads in the battery as they should.