As a proud owner of two cars with clamped/sandwich ends, I get the feeling I should be looking at upgrading.

Just for the hell of it I did a lap of the garage noting CCA ratings.

Mower 2 cyl 350CCA (the only original battery)
Morris 4 cyl 550CCA (probably just what the PO had lying around, a pretty standard size here)
Jag 8 cyl 550CCA
Toyota 6 cyl 610CCA
BMW 6 cyl 750 CCA

All have given good service, the major caveat is they dont have to work in extreme cold in general. They are subjected to extreme heat at times of course, but for 9-10 months of the year its pretty benign operating conditions for batteries.

 

Hi Everyone,

In the workshop, with the right tools and equipment it is easier to diagnose faults.

Away from home with very little of these at hand makes for a more interesting flow of checks.

This test is something that everyone should do today so that you be less likely to end up like me last week.

Have an independent trusted power source handy. A heavy duty jumper pack / battery is ideal.

Disconnect your battery completely at both terminals thus taking it out of the electrical system of your car.

Connect the external jumper / power pack directly to the cars battery leads (observing polarity of course).

Start your car.

If it fires into life quicker and or more easily than when on the old battery, you have a suspected 'high load discharge test' failure or at least deficiency.

A pretty simple test.

Reflecting on last week, if I had instructed the roadside assist man to do this above procedure, I would have found that my car would most probably have fired up.

A new battery should have got me home comfortably.

Please put this one in your memory banks.

Cheers,

Nigel

 

Hi Yarpos,

In regards to the sandwich clamps.

I have never considered this before my current dramas.

Where those two halves clamp / sandwich the cable is where the problem lies.

The cable does not have a smooth surface, so air easily gets into and under the clamp surfaces and corrodes / oxidizes from the inside.

Whilst you have a good power source (battery) you wont notice much. If you battery is marginal, then you get to have some fun working out what is not playing ball.

Trust me, I know from experience!!

Cheers,

Nigel

 

Agreed. Lucky we don't have to contend with both extremes, only the heat during which she stays in the garage and hands over to her younger modern stable mate for transportation duties.

I just found about 10mm of exposed copper core on the neg. cable as it leads into the clamp - a bit of insulation missing, going slightly green. Now all cleaned up and heat shrink insulation applied. Of course I'm not paranoid or anything...

 

Ban all those sandwich clamps. Bad news from the beginning.


If you see green at the exposed end, it could well go all the way!!! Another roadside flop coming up.


A couple of decades ago, I was playing with a 65 Corvair Monza. A PO had swapped in a turbo engine. Badly done, but I liked the combination. Fixed a lot of stuff, like subbing in a four speed tranny in lieu of the inadequate three speed . It's Carter carb was just plumb wore out.. I splurged for a Webber 45. Really slick and infinitely tuneable. Chased flat spot. Then my bare arm brushed against the batter - cable. HOT! Nope, that should not be.
YUP, a sandwich end on an otherwise fairly good cable. I swapped in a spare off my wall. Flat spot gone. Ran like crazy. all it needed to run with the little Porsche's was a 5th gear. On headers and a Super Trap muffle sans caps, it sounded real nice.


Carl

 

Side post batteries are subject to connector post failures. Don't ask!!

 

Well thanks, I'll look forward to that prophesy playing out! Of course, I could just replace the cable - a bit obvious?

 

Important note - if you are using temporary clamps testing the stater do NOT remove the clamps whilst the engine is running, you will damage the alternator diode pack.