This is one for the hokey ass board 'cause my battery is truly acting "hokey" Issue is: My Model A has a new battery, fully charged and verified by the battery charger that registers 100% I then put a volt meter on the terminals and it reads 0 charge. How can this be? How can a fully charged battery not show some voltage? Car wont' turn over and none of the gages work. What's going on here? Any theories?
If your meter is not set right, it will do that. Or if the battery charger is one of those "smart" ones, it will do that. To make sure you're measuring it right with the meter, try it on the battery in a car that you know is working. to get around a "smart" charger...get a "dumb" one.
Not the chargers because I have 2 and both read the same and show acurately other batteries I put it on. Same for the volt meter it reads ok on other batteries. Even putting jumpers on the Model battery I get no juice Cou;d the alternater be burned out?
Maybe the battery is magically going from 0 charge to 100 charge and back again? or maybe you have a problem with the meter, or the charger does not work the way you think it does. Without seeing what type of meter you have, how you have it set, and what type of chargers you have, and what they are indicating, we can't help you. Pictures, please.
As Jim says, a lot of the newer battery chargers "measure" the battery status by how much current rate the battery will accept. A shorted or completely dead battery will show fully charged.
Depends on what your battery charger is reading. If the charger is reading how much amps it’s putting in then a shorted battery can read fully charged as it won’t take any amps
Try the battery in another vehicle. This will tell you if it is a battery problem or something in the Model A.
Is your voltmeter in the right range? Are you trying to read across the battery posts on the battery or the battery terminals on the battery cable ends? If you isolate the battery from the car, does it read the same on the voltmeter?
Problem is the battery is only a month old and has been starting Ok. So even if the meter or charger is mis=reading the amount of charge it should still turn the engine over; even by jumping it from a good car battery it won't even turn over, so it has to be something in the model A wiring system. No?
If the new battery is shorted internally and you’re trying to jump it by connecting another battery to it, it won’t work as it’s still shorted internally. Disconnect the new battery put another one in its place and see if it starts. The charger is measuring the amps you can put into the battery not the amps the battery can put out.
Okay, so it wasn't a brand new battery as your first post seemed to indicate. Do you have a battery load tester? Have you removed the battery from the system and tried starting the A with another battery? Out of curiosity, are we talking 6V or 12V?
12 v system I tried to start my Jeep with the battery and it won't turn over so it seems those who said bad battery are right. Guess I'll be taking it back to the supplier. Thanks for the comments and help
There’s your answer! Take it to the place you bought it and have the battery tested. They may have to put it on the charger before they can tests it! But if for some reason your” new “ battery got 100% discharged and stayed that way for a while it could be severely damaged! Severely damaged batteries confuse new chargers. That is why I buy all the old battery chargers I can find , if I can find them for $5-10 ! Bones
I would take a pair of jumper cables and put them on the battery you think is dead and swipe the other ends together , you will know if that battery is hot or not.
I'm another one who will tell you that those digital smart chargers will sometimes lie to you about charging a battery and the one I have will not charge a dead battery, it has to have a certain amount of charge in it for the charger to recognize and decide to charge it. Had to jump my OT car off my lawn mower and charge it for about 15 minutes to put enough charge in it to trigger the charger I have. Other guys around this area must be beating me to those older analog chargers at yard sales and swap meets because I haven't seen one for sale in quite a while. I agree 100% though in that the next step is pull the battery out, take it to the dealer and have it properly tested and that may include the fact that they will have to put it on their charger for X time before they can test it correctly. Known Quantity rather than assumed.
Do your headlights work when turned on ? If so, what happens when you hit the start button with them on? If you get a new battery, get an AGM battery as they can be drained and then brought back to life numerous times while the conventional lead acid batteries never seem to come all the way back after being drained even one time.
Just went through this with a mower battery. Put it on, wouldn’t turn the motor over. Put charger on it for a few hours, it was fine, started the mower on second round. Went back a couple of days later, wouldn’t turn over again. Put charger on it, let it charge a while, cranked fine. Put my load tester on it, checked 12.5 volts, put load on it, looky here, dropped to 7.5 volts. Bad cell on a new battery. Carried it back and they made it up.
Anyone with a car they work on should own a battery load tested even a harbor freight one for like $20 . A charged battery either g Holds enough voltage under the load it's rated at or it dosent . It either does it after sitting a day or so disconnected or it doesn't. Load tester will tell you the voltage it's charging at or if it's not charging. I use one about 10 times a week
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