Battery or solenoid issue.

[zsprankle]

Hey yall. Almost finished restoring my 92 CCDS Gas and after throwing it all back together after paint and a lift I've run into some issues.

Replaced carb and changed oil due to a stuck open needle valve in the carb and it filled the sump with fuel, replaced fuel pump after it died and I had to push it up my driveway, and now I've run into an electrical problem. With the jumper cables on the battery, it will start up and run fine in maintenance mode. When I take the cables off, it will not crank. I thought i had tested the old solenoid correctly and found it bad so I replaced it also, still the same issue. With my multi meter on the batt terminals I get about a 14v reading. When i hit the pedal it stays at 14v but it seems like the solenoid isn't kicking over. When i jump the new solenoid, voltage drops to about 4v. The same thing happened with the old solenoid.

So am i correct in thinking that my battery is bad or should I be looking somewhere else?

[Mooncarter]

Sounds like battery is bad. Are you sure the 14v reading is accurate? Load test the battery.

[Fairtax4me]

14v is too high for a lead acid battery at rest. Recheck the voltage and make sure your meter is set to the correct range. Also may want to make sure the batteries in the meter are new, since old dead batteries can throw off meter readings.

A typical 12v lead battery should show around 12.6V if it is fully charged.

[Mooncarter]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

14v is too high for a lead acid battery at rest. Recheck the voltage and make sure your meter is set to the correct range. Also may want to make sure the batteries in the meter are new, since old dead batteries can throw off meter readings.

A typical 12v lead battery should show around 12.6V if it is fully charged.

[kurtbelyeu]

Originally Posted by Fairtax4me

14v is too high for a lead acid battery at rest. Recheck the voltage and make sure your meter is set to the correct range. Also may want to make sure the batteries in the meter are new, since old dead batteries can throw off meter readings.

A typical 12v lead battery should show around 12.6V if it is fully charged.

A typical 12v lead battery is around 11.4v when fully discharged...

[CP241]

Originally Posted by kurtbelyeu

A typical 12v lead battery is around 11.4v when fully discharged...

Actually, according to any SOC table, technically a fully discharged 12v battery is 10.5v

However, real world, below 12.1v is 50% discharged and that's enough to cause major problems once a load is presented.


Regardless, he was talking about the batteries in the meter throwing off readings


And to OP, agree with FT4M. 14V is way too high for a standard 12v battery. However, how long since that battery was on a charger did you test it? Most chargers will charge at 15+V. So if it had not been sitting long since you charged it, it very well could read 14V but that's not an accurate reading. It takes it a while to settle down after being charged.

[kgsc]

And y’all all are incorrect. A fully discharged battery is at zero volts. I have a few of those for cores. They dead.

Oh but back to the point, load test that battery.

[CP241]

Originally Posted by kgsc

And y’all all are incorrect. A fully discharged battery is at zero volts. I have a few of those for cores. They dead.

Oh but back to the point, load test that battery.

I'll call.your bluff and raise you a melted terminal

[zsprankle]

Alright so I took the battery to have it tested and the guy at batteries + wouldn't test it cause it was at 11V. So I broke down and got a new battery and the cart runs great now short of some small carb adjustments. My multimeter is still showing the new one at 14V so I'll chock that up to dead batteries in my meter.

Off topic.... do y'alls carts have the inner frame snubber between the tab on the swing arm and the frame? Just noticed mine does not and I've been chasing a weird vibration on takeoff.

[Mooncarter]

Glad you are running.

Put a snubber on it.