VERY Dead Cranking Battery

[Mike Newman]

I had an alternator lead break off yesterday on my cranking battery and now it is dead. It was probably run down pretty low on a long run down the lake last night. I have had the charger on it for a few hours and it does not appear to be taking a charge because charge charge status stays at about 25% on my charger. Do I need to give it overnight or is it a goner? This is a 3 month old top of the line AC Delco so other than this was in obviously great condition. Any thoughts or comments on how to save it or should I just give it more time on the charger and if no improvement head off to the battery store for a replacement?

 

[Steve Rizza]

Are you using an onboard charger ??

I had a battery so dead that my charger would not kick on one time. I hooked up a set of jumper cables to a charged battery and plugged in the charger with the batteries hooked in parallel like that. It somehow tricks the charger into kicking on.

Once it's charging you can then unhook the jumper cables.



Steve

 

[Mike Newman]

It is not an onboard charger. I have the battery in my shop on my standard 10amp battery charger.

 

[Dan J.]

Top off cells with distilled H2O and recharge. If 24hrs @ 10amps doesn't bring it back, it could be cooked. Not much to it but lead and acid. If both are still good you should be fine. Try and get in the habit of checking those cell levels every few months.

 

[mike chip]

if you battery charger does not read a charge it never turns on, hook it up with jumper cables to a car for a few minutes, then try the charger, i did this on my explorer battery that had the key left in the on postion for 2 weeks and the battery still works good 2 years later.

mike c