DEAD Batteries

[flagmanruss]

Dead as a doornail. Wifee took it to the dump last. Haven't needed in in 3-4 weeks. Went out to move it, I stuck the key in it & the wait to start didn't come on... nothing. Looked up & the dome lights were out too. We've been down to 15 several days / nights. Surely the batteries have frozen & are junk. I slapped a 6A charger on it, biggest I have... maybe I can heat them up enough to jump start after a few days. I didn't see anything left on... there's not much to leave on. I'll have to look for the paperwork... have a pair of DieHards in it. They should still be in warentee. Dog crap...

[Mopar1973Man]

If the truck is going to be sitting you might consider pulling the IOD (Ignition Off Draw). There is a special clip to hold the fuse for you but it will pull out enough to disconnect the accessories...

[flagmanruss]

OK, where's the IOD fuse? I'm wondering if I'll be able to start it to drive it out of here. AAA??

[Mopar1973Man]

IOD is in the drive side dash fuse panel.

Fuse #12

One with the black clip...

[flagmanruss]

I found a thread with the some oversized batteries sizes... Looks like I'm going to be buying again, I'd like to buy the bigger size. My DieHards are group 34... 36 month replacement, 100 month pro-rate (if I'm reading it right). Guess what I bought these in Jan 09. Son of a female doggy!! I'm not sure that the prorate is worth going after. The group 34 was the same size as OEM... but I've always been a believer in putting the biggest battery that'll fit. I measure the battery trays only 12"... but it's hard to do on tip-toes with the trays occupied. I'd like to put in a pr of group 27s... or bigger. What kind of finessing does the battery tray take to put a group 30 or 31 in? http://forum.mopar1973man.com/threads/3382-Which-batteries/page2?highlight=battery+group

[dripley]

I think mine came with 27's. I just put a pair in a couple weeks ago and thats what was in there. they fit just fine.

[fire176969]

If it is that cold when you go to jump start your truck turn your headlights on before you hook up the cables from the running vehicle. It will keep the initial shock from the jumper cables trying to charge the dead batteries from exploding, if they are frozen it will help thaw them out.

[flagmanruss]

I've had the 6 amp charger on it 36 hours so far... + another 8 come morning. (Only shows a 2A charge going on.) I should have checked the voltage before I put the charger on but I didn't... it just seemed seemed moot. After 24 hours of charge, I disconnected the charger & got 12 on each battery but I didn't let them rest to get the true voltage. I will disconnect the charger & let it rest & test voltage before proceeding. If it looks like they are taking a charge, I'm going to run another cord for the block heater... give the block time to warm up. Then go for a jump start. I only have cars to jump from. If this does not work, I pull the batteries & take them to Sears.

[Rogan]

good luck, and let us know how it goes for you.

[flagmanruss]

OK. I checked the battery voltages at 12.5 each after resting an hour off charge. Block heater had done it's thing for just an hour, air temp about 35*F. I figured nothing to lose, didn't bother with a jump start, just let the grid heaters run normal & turned the key. Took maybe a couple of seconds longer but it started right up. The clock is messed up I notice... Too late to take it for a drive today, just moved it enough to get in front & shut back down. Looking at 3-6" of snow again tonight. (Messing about with extension cords is much nicer when they're not snow covered!) I put the charger back on, picked up the extension across the driveway (block heater.) Sheila moved the charger cord behind the woodpile so she could plow snow with the ATV this morning. So I'm going to give it another day of trickle charge, make up for the Starting Amps & finish off, then pull the charger. I'm going to moniter the battery voltages & see how the batteries look after a few days. This was a mistake, avoidable. Probably shortened the battery life at least. Thanks for the tips, Russ

[Rogan]

that's a good deal, Russ.Somethind I noticed the other day, while having to use my jumpbox to start mine, is that the alternator (mine, anyway) does NOT charge if I start it and let it idle. Only after I blip the throttle to +1300-1500rpm will the alternator excite and start charging...:cookoo:reminds me of my old VW(s)..

[Mopar1973Man]

Crack sensor / Cam sensor? Not seeing RPM to tell the PCM to flip on the ground for the field.

[flagmanruss]

I'm omly familiar with old fashoned alternators / voltage regulators... you couldn't see a lot of them charging at idle. As soon as the RPM picked up there was enough output to register on a ammeter. I just realized what I said... modern vehicles have volt meters...

[Mopar1973Man]

Actually the modern charging system is exactly the same as back then except there is a few changes. The alternator puts out much more amperage and the voltage regulator is part of the PCM now with a battery temp sensor to prevent batteries from getting gassy.But if you want to convert back to old school just got to unhook the PCM and hook up a old school regulator on the firewall to the alternator.But the reason why the amp meter was removed is because of the extreme high amperage the alternators now produce. Back in the day it was like 45-60 Amps was standard now we are up to 120 Amps and more.

[flagmanruss]

Truck sat 2 days after last use. It didn't want to start today. Realitively warm today but on the first try the "Wait to start" light didn't come on. It turned on the first couple of trys but did not fire. On the third try, the AirDog ran long & noisily... maybe 30 seconds. Next try it fired on maybe one cylinder but caught. I drove it... ran fine & restarted fine... I notice a lot of charging still going on. The batteries are certainly suspect. I'm thinking I need to take it to Sears & get the batteries tested.

[Mopar1973Man]

Something is wrong for the batteries to be dead in just 2 days... :rolleyes:Time to roll on down to Sears and have them load tested like you said...

[flagmanruss]

The batteries were not dead in 2 days... but the truck always started on the first click before. Now it doesn't although it was better today after just sitting over one night. Raining this morning... sometimes hard... I am in the last month of the 3 years free replacement from Sears. I decided to take it in & have them checked. Of course, they found the batteries to be "fine". Alternator charging good which I knew, of course. I don't trust them. (Could be they want to put me off until I'm into the Pro-Rate period) I don't see how the batteries could be OK if they were so dead the dome light didn't come on... Unless there's some low voltage cut off in the electronics? I found the noise, which sounded like the AirDog... was coming from the wrong direction. I fiddled with the CD player & it stopped. No disc in there but I hit "Eject" & it went away. Clock is holding time ok.I did the key trick & got no codes... I ought to buy a code reader. I'm going to keep driving it & either it'll screw up or I'll get some confidence in it. Russ

[pepsi71ocean]

sounds like a drain on the batteries.do this, pull the negatives off the battery and attach a volt tester between the negative lead and negative terminal, and see if it is drawing voltage, it should draw some but i feel it is drawling alot of mA.Set the volt meter to either 10 or 20 Amp setting and see what it is reading.If it is reading more then say 20-40 mA's then the car has a parasitic drain. Might be best to find out first.If it is then its time to go relay by relay to see if it is stuck open, ort maybe your grid's are sticking open as well, never know.

[fire176969]

sounds like a drain on the batteries. do this, pull the negatives off the battery and attach a volt tester between the negative lead and negative terminal, and see if it is drawing voltage, it should draw some but i feel it is drawling alot of mA. Set the volt meter to either 10 or 20 Amp setting and see what it is reading. If it is reading more then say 20-40 mA's then the car has a parasitic drain. Might be best to find out first. If it is then its time to go relay by relay to see if it is stuck open, ort maybe your grid's are sticking open as well, never know.

Just keep in mind that when checking for parasitic draw like this you need to make sure there isn't any lights or any other load you know of on. The initial power surge from even the dome light will blow the fuse in the meter. Not really a big deal but kind of a pain when you are looking for a problem and have to stop and change a fuse in your meter.

[Mopar1973Man]

Fire is right...:smart:Not to mention the initial draw of the 2 computers (PCM and ECM) they will wipe out a fuse right off...Make sure to hook up the circuit for a short time then pull the fuse or cable and test after. But if you test on inital hook it will wipe out the DVM fuse...