Dead 6V battery

[Joey]

Need help! For some reason, my battery keep going down and dying out. This is my second new battery, it's dead and won't take a charge. I'm open to ideas for the cause. I'm not a mechanic and don't have any meters. If y'all tell me what I need, I'm willing to buy the tools and try to check things out.

The battery was polarized whenever it was disconnected and reconnected. I thought this was the problem with the first battery. Is it possible the generator belt being a little loose could not charge the battery? Can the generator being checked on the tractor while it's running?

[kinelbor]

I have heard that the best place to test the generator is at the battery. Test the voltage while the tractor is off at the battery. Then fire it up and bring it to about 1/2 throttle or so, then test the voltage. If it is higher then it is charging. Otherwise start looking for shorts. Either way you will need to buy a mutlimeter. Should be able to get one for under $30, and if you want one with more features I think you can get it for under $100. Hope it helps.

[Bigdog]

Harbor Freight has digital vom's for $2.99. Not great meters but they work and you can throw it away painlessly if you need to. I keep 2 or 3 of these around for vehicle glove boxes and rough service.

[Joey]

OK, I'll get a vom (voltmeter?) or multimeter. I'm not an electrician, so how do I use it? I've seen other people use them, but it always seems like they just touch different things until the needle jumped.
kinelbor: You suggest testing at the battery. Do I touch the two probes to the two battery posts? Does it matter which probe goes to which post? I know these may be amateurish questions, but I hate having to wait for someone to diagnose my problems - too much wasted time, no satisfaction. Please bear with me. Thanks.

[Bigdog]

set the meter to DC volts. Black lead to negative, red to positive. Should read about 6.4 to 6.6 volts with engine off, about 7 to 7.4 volts at half to three quarter throttle. if it's charging

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Joey, I suggest using an analog voltmeter rather than a digital one. Frequently the generator creates enough electrical noise to confuse a cheap digital meter. With the tractor running you should see about 6.5 volts or a little higher at the abattery. It should very slowly climb as the tracotr runs. If it is only 5.5 volts or less or keeps getting lower, the generator isn't working.

Here is a link to an inexpensive and easy to use battery and charging system testor. All you do is connect it and look at the meter. It is marked red for bad, and green for good.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=90920

[Eugene]

My opinion on which VOM for a novice to purchase. The cheapest analog (needle) or digital you can buy at the hardware store. Reason, if you make a mistake you burn out the fuse. The fuse costs about the same as the entire VOM and is soldered in. Look around you can frequently find one for around $10.00. Accuracy of the cheap ones are close enough for what we are doing. They are actually petty good.

BIGGEST CAUTION: Do not switch the dial with the leads connected to anything. Burns out the fuse.

Usage as per John and BigDog.

Eugene

[danovercash]

Multimeter has lots of other uses too. DC volts, AC volts, and Ohms for testing continuity. I got mine at Radio Shack years ago for ten or twelve dollars.

[John Niekamp]

Joey,

I will add to what John P. said and the link to for the meter is more than just a meter to check the voltage of your battery it will also "LOAD" your battery to tell you if you have a weak battery like a dead cell. If you do go with one and they sure are nice to have, just make sure to read the directions before you actually run the "load" test, for the test should only be ran for a few seconds. The more expensive battery testers even have a built in cooling fan and an automatic load test switch, because these guys do get HOT. The reason I say this, the very first one of these load tester I had, I used quite a bit, one day I dropped it on the floor and busted the meter, the next one I bought I "THOUGHT" was used the same way, so I held the load test on for so many seconds (like my old one) and I melted the cables on the new one. I decided that I had better go back and read the directions on the new one, LOL!

One other thing I wanted to ask, you said you have had two batteries "won't take a charge" Did you mean they didn't take a charge from your Cub's charging system or from a 6 volt battery charger??

If they don't even charge from a battery charger, you probably did get you a bad battery or two and maybe not a charing problem issue from your Cub. One would think the chances of getting two bad batteries in a row are slim, but one time I had to go back and get 3 different ones and then the 4th about 3 months later. I don't buy that brand of battery no longer and some people swear by them too. NOT ME!

Good luck, hope the problem lies with a bad battery or two.

John Niekamp

[Joey]

John N. - the batteries not taking a charge is from the 6v charger. Can the Cub run the battery down far enough that it ruins them? When you brought the 3-4 bad batteries back, did they just swap them out, or were they prorated?

Thanks for all the tips and advice. I'll look around and see what I can get. If I have more questions, you can bet I'll be back!

[John Niekamp]

John N. - the batteries not taking a charge is from the 6v charger. Can the Cub run the battery down far enough that it ruins them? When you brought the 3-4 bad batteries back, did they just swap them out, or were they prorated?

Thanks for all the tips and advice. I'll look around and see what I can get. If I have more questions, you can bet I'll be back!

Joey,

I would like to say No, unless you left it sit dead for a long period of time and/or during winter. Under most conditions a battery should should come back up to full charge with a charger on them, UNLESS your battery charger has shot craps, which has been known to happen too.

Does your battery charger have a meter on it to show the amount of charge going in the battery? If not you might want to put a tester on the leads of the charger too.

Well Sears was very good about exchanging the bad batteries and they did not pro-rate them not even the on taken in three months later. These were all 12 volt batteries, but reguardeless of the voltage, I think they would have made them good.

One of the very best 6 volt batteries I have ever had was from John Deere, it was 6 volt J.D. Strongbox, I don't know who made it for them, but it was a good one, 8 years old and still cranking strong.

Most places that sells batteries and you have to bring them in for an exchange will check the gravity and chage them and place a load test on them, they don't want to exchage a battery if there is nothing wrong with it.

Batteries are strange, you can get one battery that will give you several years of use, while you get another one that will only last a few months. I don't know if it's the way they were put together at the factory or if the lead plates are spaced just a little differently or what the deal is.


Then what about the old wives tale about sitting a battery on the concret without a pice of wood under it. fact or fiction, I do not know, I just know that my grandpa always chewed my butt for sitting it on the bare concret floor. to keep him from coming back and haunting me, I place the thing on some wood.

One other word of caution and voice of experience, ALWAYS use extreame caution whenever messing around with a battery. I have had two batteries explode in my face and I always wear safety glasses.

This has been discussed here on the forum and just a few months ago. All it takes is one small spark, to cause a battery to explode, belived me it hurts like hell, just lucky that I didn't loose any of my vision on either incident.

Anytime you have a question there are ample people here with a vast array of knowledge, they are more than willing to help you out, just ask away. You will get a sincere and honest response. Many of these fine folks have dealt with things first hand and are more than willing to share with others.

John

[George Willer]

Joey,

I don't think any of the excellent posts on the subject mentioned this. What you need is a VOM...(V)olt (O)hm (M)illiammeter. The volt meter will be used a lot, the ohmmeter even more, and the milliammeter almost never.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Joey, may be a couple more things that need checking.

First, a 6 volt cub is positive ground, meaning the + post of the battery connects to the ground cable. If you are installing the batteries with the - to the ground you could be burning them up.

Second, You need to use a voltmeter or the battery testor I mentioned to check your charging voltage. If you are overcharging the battery, it will drastically shorten the life.

Third (ok, I added one), the generator may need to be polarized. With a good battery installed and corrected properly and the enigne not running, briefly connect a jumper form the BAT. lead of the regulator to the GEN. terminal. A small spark is normal.

[Charles (49) Mo]

Have found that these new fancy chargers will not charge a completely dead battery. They need a referance voltage to work. An old charger often brings a basket case battery back to life.

[kinelbor]

My charger manual says that you can "recondition" a dead battery by hitting it with the 50 amp boost for a minute or two to bring up the voltage then start charging normally.