Thread: Battery Woes

Tweet

Originally Posted by rspears

No answers yet, but just got off the phone with Byron at XS (Nathan's out on holiday). After a lengthy discussion on the history we agreed that the only way to really know for sure if this battery is right for the application or not is for them to do a full diagnostic check on it. It's heading their way in today's mail, so we should have an answer by weeks end. If it's a capacity issue then I'll be looking at reworking my trunk to tuck a bigger battery into the corner, or worst case moving the gas tank over a few inches to make room. Fingers crossed that my S680 is weak under load, and a new one will fix the problems.

If you need a larger size I think the 925 (looks like XS uses the same number sizing as Odyssey) is only slightly bigger than the 680, so you wouldn't need much extra unless you're bound on all 6 sides.

With my trunk area mounted battery I ground the battery to the frame, Then from the frame to the engine, then from the frame the the body..The rubber body and engine mounts make good insulators.

Rog, Hope it's just a bad battery.
Just my 2 cents -----------
Ditch the braided ground strap and run #1 welding lead
for all grounds.
Never faid me in 40 years.
I hate gg's (ground gremlins)

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Rog, Hope it's just a bad battery.
Just my 2 cents -----------
Ditch the braided ground strap and run #1 welding lead
for all grounds.
Never faid me in 40 years.
I hate gg's (ground gremlins)

Just to be clear, the ground strap I'm using is like this:Ground Strap.jpg
1" W, 3/16" thick, 12" long and the grounds using this are all low draw circuits. My dilema is that if the battery proves to be good, then it is too small and cannot be trusted day to day for starts, and especially for hot starts. Next is that I'm dealing factory direct, which is good from a technical standpoint, but bad for timing. My plan to take the '33 on a second road trip this weekend are now scrapped.

Just a thought is your charging system up to par?

Rog, Stuff a REAL Battery in the trunk, wire it up with welding lead
and be done with it.
Those damn braided flat straps went out when the Red Sea was parted.
They attract moister and ya loose most of yer ground then.

Originally Posted by cffisher

Just a thought is your charging system up to par?

Charlie,
My first thought, too, but yes it's cranking out just under 14V and is a 100A alternator.

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

Rog, Stuff a REAL Battery in the trunk, wire it up with welding lead and be done with it. Those damn braided flat straps went out when the Red Sea was parted. They attract moister and ya loose most of yer ground then.

Yeah, but I believe that the AGM battery is a real battery, and that an AGM of proper capacity is much superior to a lead acid battery. They put out their full power in a flat line, as opposed to a lead acid cells decreasing power as it discharges. If I have to go to the trunk it will be another AGM battery - no gassing, no need for an enclosure, superior power curve. There're a bunch of vehicles running the same battery I've got without problems. I think mine may have been damaged by sitting too long on the shelf/in the car before first fire without a good charger on it. We'll know soon....

I agree with deep sixing the flat braided ground strap as that could very possibly be a large part of your problem.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

I agree with deep sixing the flat braided ground strap as that could very possibly be a large part of your problem.

I can't see how? The starter circuit is grounded via insulated battery cables, battery to bulkhead, bulkhead to block. The braided ground strap simply goes from bulkhead to frame, which provides ground links for lighting and instrument circuits. How can that braided strap be causing any problem? I don't understand the logic.

logic, pogic
or whatever.
Change it, ya may be suprised.
Also, all my charging systems put out between 14.2 & 14.8

Originally Posted by DA34GUY

....Also, all my charging systems put out between 14.2 & 14.8

Really? I'd think 14.8V would be boiling your battery.

Theory explanation was never one of my strong suits, but I will try. The frame is the base reference for ground and with the right equipment, insert $$$, you would find that your braided ground strap is offering more resistance to current flow than conventional grounding cable. Voltage flow is from negative to positive whereas current flow is from positive to negative or at least that was the accepted thought when I went through radar repair school many moons ago. I wish Don Shillady was around as I believe he could explain it much better than I.

At this point the battery was pretty well depleted, so I grabbed my jumper cables and hooked up my Jeep lead acid battery to the cables on the AGM battery.

Connecting your jumper cables to the AGM battery terminals and starting it with no trouble virtually proves all of the connections between the battery and starter are good.

The weak link is the battery, it is either bad or not large enough.

Got another clarification today. I took the big battery out of the F150, set it in the passenger floorboard and hooked it up using the same cables. The engine cranked quickly, and started within one to two revolutions. I warmed it up, stopping at each of the eight or nine break points on my crank fuel vs coolant temp curve, and at each point it started almost immediately. Fully warm I shut it down, left it alone for 1/2 hour and again it started in one to two revolutions. Then I drove 15miles to the closest gas station that has no ethanol premium, filled up and it again started quickly. This confirms that the hot start problems are tied to the battery, so the only question now is 1) Is the S680 battery weak/bad, or 2) Is the S680 battery simply too small for the service. The battery should be at XS Power today or Friday, so I should have answers soon.

When I bought my Odyssey batteries, the dealer said the 925 was the minimum size to reliably start a SBC so I went with the
PC1200. Have bought perhaps 10 or 12 of them and they all work great. Perhaps such is the problem.