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Tyre Went Flat On My XJS Due To Leaking Tyre Valve!
Nice Day Today So Thought I'd Check My Tyre Pressures
After My XJS Had Been Standing 18 Months
Wanted to Check the Tyre Pressures Of My XJS that had now been Standing 18 Months, as going for an MOT with Tyres that have lost pressure is probably not recommended if you want your Car to pass but in order to get to the Front Tyres, She had to come out of the Garage
Which meant avoiding 'The Tree Of Doom' that was hanging by a Thread and could have come crashing down at any moment but since there was hardly a Breath of Wind, I decided to Risk it
The 'Tree of Doom' was hanging by a Thread so I will need my 'Cherry Picker' working so that I will be able to Cut it down!
Pumping Up this Front Tyre did not go as planned, as by the time I'd had a Cup of Tea, it was nearly Flat which turned out to be a Leaking Valve!
Front Tyre was losing Air!
For reasons that cannot be explained, I managed to find some Spare Valves in the Shed and then I pumped the Tyre up with my Very Noisy Little Compressor!
Apart from Pumping up my Tyres this Compressor is so Noisy that it will drive the Neighbous Crazy, so if you want a peaceful life, then its best to buy a Belt driven Compressor, the only problem being that they are quite a bit more expensive that these Direct Drive ones
Time To Start My XJS And Get Her Out Of The Garage
This Would Be Her Second 'Stone Cold Start Up'
Where To My Amazement This Went Even Better Than Expected
In order to see this for yourself you will need to see the Video, which should have Up Loaded, by the Time I've Finished Typing this, as the First Start Up that I did was a Week ago and so I was wondering if this time She might just 'Boot Up' Quicker than She did before
Where to my Amazement that was exactly what happened from a 'Stone Cold Start'
When I Turned the Key to Position (1) The Brake Pump Booted Up in 25 Seconds, which was about half the Time than it took before, then when I turned the Key to position (2) as you will see from the 'Video' She Started on the Button, and ran as smooth as silk right from the get go!
Just before I put my 4.0L XJS away for the Winter, I fully Charged the Battery with my 'Trickle Charger' and when that was done I Switched it off but didn't take the Battery Charging Clips Off from the Battery
In not doing so, this seems to have caused a Parasitic Drain, as when I went to try and Start Her Today the Battery was as Flat as a Proverbial 'Pancake!'
Which now brings me on to a Question for all of you Auto Electricians out there (very much hoping that Warrjon reads this)
I am really desperate to get my Welding Set Working, as it also has a Battery 'Starter Charger' built in, as this can Charge a Battery much Quicker than my 'Trickle Charger' can
The problem being every time I plug it in to the 240 Volt House Mains it Blows a Fuse, even though its connected to 15 Amps
I've Checked both the Plug and the Mains Lead to the Welding Set and they are OK and not shorting anything out
But on the Top of the Welding Set are 5 Terminals, the Big one in the Middle being the Earth, which then leaves Two at the Top and Two at the Bottom see Photo below
Even with all the Wires removed, any combination of those Terminals, when Tested with my DVM indicates a Dead Short and I'm not even sure if what I am looking at is just some sort of Junction Box or whether any Wires underneath the Base of this 'Square Thingy' go into the actual Welding Box itself?
The Two Terminals with the Wires on, go into a Separate Box on the Side of the Welder, which I think is the Discharge Capacitor which I know or think I know that you mustn't touch, even if the Welder is unplugged as it can Store Current
So all the DVM Testing was carried out with the Welder Unplugged but all the same I'm wondering what is underneath that Square Terminal 'Thingy' as maybe I will find something that Connects the Two Top Terminals with the Two Bottom Terminals, that is somehow Shorting out to the Top of the Case
And though I'm going to have to take it off so I can have a look, a bit of advance information of what I may find, would come in very handy if anyone knows
I did have it working years ago, although its not working now
BTW what looks like droplets of Water is Carburetor Cleaner but even with that Cleaned out of the way, I still get a Dead Short
Where we live February was the Coldest Month this Year, as it was either Freezing Cold or just plain downright miserable in every possible way you could imagine, where even worse if it could get worse, I was getting '50 Shades' My Grey XJS ready for her MOT in April
Or at least that was the Plan, until all the Bad Weather put a Stop to that which always seems to be the way it goes and so I decided to leave her in the Garage until the Weather improved
Where just in case you were wondering, that day arrived today where I was awakened by a Blaze of Sunshine coming through the Curtains and the GF with some Toast and Honey and a Cup of Tea!
It really doesn't get better than that and so with no time to lose, it was off to the Garage to Start '50 Shades' and then do whatever I thought I could do just in case 'Sod's Law' decreed that it might Start Raining! which is the sort of thing you can expect approaching Easter
So the Job for Today to begin with was Cleaning all the Tyres and though I've used 'Tyre Paint' in previous Years, just for a Change I went 'Old School' with a Tip that I was given by my MOT Guy, years ago but never got around using until now
I'm not a big Fan of Tyre Paint although I've used it before because to me at least it looks un-natural and has a bit of a 'Garage Queen' Vibe going on, so being the 'Bargain Hunter' that I have always been, I found a Box of 'Cherry Blossom' Black Shoe Polish in my Super Market, reduced to 9 pence a Tin!
So 'Natch' I bought it all, as its usually expensive when its at Full Price and so not knowing what that was and couldn't caring less, I just filled my Trolley and headed for the 'Check Out'
Where having then got back to base at 'Orange Blossom Towers' I put it in the Cupboard to keep for a Rainy Day, or maybe Sunny Day is what I meant!
So after washing all the Wheels, the next thing that I did was open up a Tin of 'Black Shoe Polish' where my MOT Guy told me not to Polish it but just to daub it on and then Stand Back and 'Watch the Magic Happen'
Which I'm very pleased to say it did!
Looking a bit 'Grotty' but all that was now about to change!
I somehow think that 'Spiffing' could be the Word that I am looking for 'Old School Baby' Those Wheels looked amazing!
But then I had an unexpected Problem! as so keen was I to do this, that just for once I dispensed with my 'Pre-Flight Checks' because as the Engine was Warming up with that delicious Burble and Roar
The Temp Gauge on the Binnacle wasn't moving at all!
OMG! could it be that I was out of Water and maybe have got a leak that I hadn't noticed before! and so the Engine could be Cooking without me knowing anything about it
Although it didn't feel as if it had been overheating and the Aux Cool down Fan was really not Spinning for long, do what could it be?
Because an Overheating Engine could be the 'Kiss of Death' as we all know!
Though knowing I couldn't drive the Car until it had been fixed
That my Friends is 'When The Training Kicked in!'
The First thing that I looked for was the Cooling Temperature Sensor, as if a Wire had come off that, then She wouldn't Start but as from what I was able to see all that was in Order, the Next thing that I looked for was The Binnacle SENDER (not Sensor) that then sends a Signal to the Binnacle Gauge
The 'Coolant Temperature Sensor' Looked OK
Next Port of Call, was going to be 'The Coolant Temperature SENDER, that relays the Signal to the Temp Gauge in the Binnacle on the Dashboard and if you don't know where to look, it takes some finding
'Yup' that's it right there and although the Engine will still run, if it isn't working, you really want that working, so that you can see what's going on
I still don't know how that could be but somehow that Wire had come undone but when I plugged the Wire back in to the Bullet Connector, the Temp Gauge Sprang back into life, where having 'Dodged a Bullet' 'Fifty Shades' to then go on to fight another day!
Which if anything goes to show just how essential those 'Pre-Flight Checks' are!
Nothing can beat the annoyance of having a dead Flat Battery, especially in this Cold Weather, when you need to go down to the Shops in for instance my 'Daily Driver' 'The Merc' who's engine refused to turn over, just when I needed it most and so I had to buy another one that Cost me £80!
And then another one after that for the XJS in the Garage and then another one after that for my other XJS neither of which I take Shopping, as even in a Totally empty Car Park, someone in a 4 Wheel drive will always park right beside you, while being none too careful about opening their doors
And so I either take the Merc or the GF's MX5 or if not available then I would rather Walk!
If only I had a decent Battery Charger! and though I've had a few of these that I haven't taken Care of as much as I should have, they have either burned themselves out or rusted away and don't work
They used to be as 'Cheap as Chips' but nowadays with everyone Price Gouging, they can almost Cost as much as a Brand New Battery, so for me that was the dilemma of which one of those I should get
Then I remembered something that had been down my Shed for many Years, which was an Olympus Bantam Welder, which was apparently one of the Best Welding Sets that was ever made, only this one was a bit Special as it also had a Starter Charger 1amp right up to 150amps
OMG! this was just what I wanted, as I had more Batteries to Charge Up than I could Shake a Stick at!
The only problem being, that it didn't Work as not being into Mechanics when I had it 'Gifted to me' every time I Switched it on, it Blew all the Fuses even though I was using the 15 amp Cooker Socket and if you keep on doing that then Sooner or Later you will Burn the House down!
And the reason that I know that is because it happened to me, or rather my Dad, who literally got his Wires Crossed, so that you got a Shock when you Turned on the Tap! which was somehow earthed to the Gas Main with the Positive Red Wire instead of the Green Earth Wire
Where because this Blew the Main Fuse in the Garage and we didn't have a Spare with which to replace it, Dad decided to make one, which was not one of the Best ideas, that he ever had!
Which he still maintained would have been alright if someone hadn't gone to the 'Lou' (John) in the Middle of the Night, which somehow caused a dead short across the Main Fuse, which still remains a Mystery to this very day, as even the Firemen couldn't work out what had happened
Where in Case I forget to mention it, this Melted the Lead Connection to the Gas Meter that was beside it, which then caused the Gas to Escape, which then caused such an Explosion that it blew the Garage Doors right across the Road, followed by Mum and Dads Bedroom Wall
From where you had a Panoramic View of all of the Fire Engines as they turned up!
But I will say this for Dad he never Panicked and sort of Started to Wonder what all the Fuss was about and loved the View down the High Street so much, that instead of replacing the Wall of the House, he though it would be a better idea to have a 15ft X 6ft Picture Window put in!
And then Collected up all the Bricks that used to be their Bedroom Wall and Turned them into a Rockery 'as you do'
Still got all the Press Cuttings on the Loft Somewhere.
So being as the Apple never Falls far from the Tree, I have done my best to avoid Dad's Bad habits
But now back to this Started Charger Welder, that was somehow Blowing Fuses when it was plugged in, where it seemed that inside the Case of Oil the Welder Sat in, Condensation through lack of use had Somehow Built up underneath the Terminals inside
And so there was only one thing to do and that was lift it out of its Oil Bath with a Block and Tackle
Something underneath those Threaded Studs is causing a Short!
Not a very easy fix as that Welding Set weighs a Ton, although somehow I managed to Clean it up with WD and Carburetor Cleaner
According to the DVM it looks like I may have Fixed it, although still being Traumatized by what happened to my Parents House. I wanted to wait for Daylight before I plugged it in, though meanwhile I managed to pick up a Battery Charger Conditioner, where all about how that worked is going to follow
After my Father brought the House down in more ways than one, by making a Total Frap-Up of Rewiring their House, I was understandably Nervous about Plugging in my 'Vintage' Welder Starter Charger, as in the back of my mind I could see a Pattern Forming with Lightening Striking Twice!
Where as such I was properly Paranoid, about the prospect that History might start repeating itself, so if I was going to plug in that Welder, I really didn't want to do that at Night
So instead I decided to plug in my Battery Charger Conditioner, which I had bought at Lidl for £15 that very Afternoon and then once having done so decided to Charge the other Battery Overnight
What could possibly go wrong?
The Answer was Thankfully Nothing went wrong, which did make a bit of a Change and so when I Checked it this Morning, it was fully Charged to the Max and looked like it would hold its Charge as after letting the Battery rest as my DVM Confirmed
As for the other Battery, that hadn't had anywhere near long enough on the Charger, even though with was little it had it seemed to be pulling up well
Battery2 needs a lot more Charge and so I will leave it on the Charger for the rest of the day, while I check over '50 Shades' my Grey XJS for her MOT Test
Just before I put my 4.0L XJS away for the Winter, I fully Charged the Battery with my 'Trickle Charger' and when that was done I Switched it off but didn't take the Battery Charging Clips Off from the Battery
In not doing so, this seems to have caused a Parasitic Drain, as when I went to try and Start Her Today the Battery was as Flat as a Proverbial 'Pancake!'
Which now brings me on to a Question for all of you Auto Electricians out there (very much hoping that Warrjon reads this)
I am really desperate to get my Welding Set Working, as it also has a Battery 'Starter Charger' built in, as this can Charge a Battery much Quicker than my 'Trickle Charger' can
The problem being every time I plug it in to the 240 Volt House Mains it Blows a Fuse, even though its connected to 15 Amps
I've Checked both the Plug and the Mains Lead to the Welding Set and they are OK and not shorting anything out
But on the Top of the Welding Set are 5 Terminals, the Big one in the Middle being the Earth, which then leaves Two at the Top and Two at the Bottom see Photo below
Even with all the Wires removed, any combination of those Terminals, when Tested with my DVM indicates a Dead Short and I'm not even sure if what I am looking at is just some sort of Junction Box or whether any Wires underneath the Base of this 'Square Thingy' go into the actual Welding Box itself?
The Two Terminals with the Wires on, go into a Separate Box on the Side of the Welder, which I think is the Discharge Capacitor which I know or think I know that you mustn't touch, even if the Welder is unplugged as it can Store Current
So all the DVM Testing was carried out with the Welder Unplugged but all the same I'm wondering what is underneath that Square Terminal 'Thingy' as maybe I will find something that Connects the Two Top Terminals with the Two Bottom Terminals, that is somehow Shorting out to the Top of the Case
And though I'm going to have to take it off so I can have a look, a bit of advance information of what I may find, would come in very handy if anyone knows
I did have it working years ago, although its not working now
BTW what looks like droplets of Water is Carburetor Cleaner but even with that Cleaned out of the way, I still get a Dead Short
To me it looks like your welder can be used at different voltages. Right now you have connected it up so it need 416V. I think the blue wire should be connected to the 230V terminal . Connect the other cable to 0. If you have a earth cable connect that to the long earth terminal.
.....Anders
Yes! you are probably right and that could be why I was Blowing Fuses, although having searched through all the 'Stick Welder Forums' I eventually managed to find a Circuit Diagram that someone had sketched on a piece of paper
Although it was still Blowing Fuses even when I had it Wired up Correctly, which as you said was Red on the 240V and Blue on the Zero with Green on the Earth
Where further research uncovered something else I didn't know, as what I thought was the Battery Charger on the Back of the Welding Set, was the Discharge Capacitor, which apparently Stores up Voltage in order to make it easier to Strike Up an Arc when Welding
Which you mustn't touch when its plugged in or you could get yourself a nasty shock
It's not essential that you use this, as it was an optional extra and since it can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, I decided to disconnect it, as I only want to use this as a Starter Charter
Last edited by orangeblossom; 03-04-2024 at 10:00 AM.
Call it 'Pilot Error' as it was all my Fault, for not disconnecting my Battery During the Winter, as this Car had a Parasitic Drain! probably caused by either the Immobilizer or the Clock or both or even something different altogether, though this has never been a problem during the Summer Months
But it is what it was and so this Battery was right now as Ironically 'Flat as a Pancake' as we are already approaching Easter!
So the Question now is can you Charge a dead Flat Battery like this was?
The Answer being: Well it all depends!
(1) On the Battery Charger you are using
(2) Is there any juice at all in the Battery
Since all I had was my Ultimate Speed Smart Charger and the Battery was as 'Dead as a Dodo' The Answer in this case was NO!
So now what to do about that? There are of course many ways round this but the way I chose was this:
First I disconnected the Battery on the Car, just in case a Surge my Blow a Diode in the Alternator, which if that should happen can leave you with a 'Nightmare' of a Problem to sort out
So using my 'Bargain of the Century' Brand New 15ft Jump Leads, that I got from a 'Thrift Shop' for £10 I used a Fully Charged Battery, that I had Charged up Yesterday to put a bit of 'Juice' in the Flat Battery on the Car
For about 30 Minutes while drinking Numerous 'Cups of Tea' and Chocolate Digestives 'As you do.....in the UK'
'Take one Dead Flat Battery' and it was my Brand New One! That Cost me Megabucks!
Put some 'Juice' in from a Fully Charged one, it doesn't have to be Fully Charged, for as long as its got some 'Juice' in that might be enough
It only took a tiny amount out of this Fully Charged Battery, about .2 if you really want to get Technical (Which I don't!) but that was enough
Then I could Charge the Battery on the Car with the Leads disconnected in the Normal way, with my Super Dupa Ultimate Speed Smart Charger
Note: This Photo was for illustration Purposes, as I didn't want to get my Camera Wet in the Pouring Rain!
But since it only Charges Slowly, it could take 10 hours or more to get the Battery on the Car 'Fully Charged' again
A couple of comments (and please forgive me if you already know this)
Many "intelligent" batttery conditioners (including the Ultimate Speed one that you've bought) will not start the charging process if the voltage is below 7.5v. So you have to get the voltage up above this level, either with a different battery or a high capacity "non-intelligent" charger. The fact you were apparently able to get the charger to start with only a 0.2v drop from the piggy-back battery means that the duff battery must have already been really close to the 7.5v lower limit.
If the voltage is between 7.5v and 10.5v, the conditioner will pulse charge the battery, but at only 0.8a, until it can the battery above 10.5v. This is why it can take some hours.
Once the battery is above 10.5v, it will charge at 5a until it reaches 14.7v, then it will drop to "condition" mode. Remember that "14.7v" isn't really what is in the battery. It's just the "charging voltage". To really check what is in the battery, you need to disconnect the charger and wait 15 mins, then measure with a DVM.
The programme that you have got it set on in that photo is the "cold charging" programme, or one that will also suit AGM batteries. That means there could be a delay before it starts charging. As it's not freezing temperatures, change the programme to the standard 12v car battery programme and it will start charging sooner.
But that Battery had Zero Volts, when Checked with my DVM and wouldn't even Charge on any Programme, not even the 6 Volt programme, which was why I decided to Connect a Fully Charged Battery to the one in the Car, in order to give it a Boost in order to get the Charger to Start Charging it
(Battery One) Fully Charged Battery that had been standing a couple of days before Connecting it to the one in the Car to get the Charger to Charge
After Boost Charging the Battery in the Car for about half an hour the Voltage in this Slave Battery was down a little bit as Shown in the Next Pic
Remember that in each of those photos you've also got the battery connected with jump leads to the other battery, so you're not accurately measuring the voltage of just the one battery.
It was really just the best that I could do, as it was chucking it down with rain at the time and so I only took a reading out of curiosity more than anything else, to see if it had run the slave battery down
Though as you can see it only took a little bit out of it, where after half an hour on the Charger, it regained its full Charge, where the even better news is that I have now got Three old Batteries that are now fully charged, not including the one that is still on that Car
So with any luck they might even Start my Cherry Picker. so I can take down those Branches of 'Doom' that are hanging over my XJS that could come tumbling down at any moment
Did I simply miss the pics of the Cherry Picker??? Is it all you thought it would be? or Worse? LOL! Cmon where's the PICS? I have no I dea what you all on that side of the pond call a Cherry Picker? Over here it is a rolling engine hoist, for removing said engine from cars, pickup trucks, etc. So I'm definitely curious.
02-08-2024, 12:45 PM
