I'd been wondering if my 7 year old battery was dying, which seemed likely, but it stays on one of those battery tenders that de-sulfates, and most times it starts great even without having been on the tender for a week or two. Other times, it was sluggish, and barely cranked over. NAPA had a good sale on batteries, so after another slow-cranking session, I decided to pull mine and get a new one. 7 years is a great run on a 65 month battery!
But I pulled the ground from the battery and was greeted by a HUGE arc which of course combined with hydrogen from the battery is a bit scary, to say the least. And the battery cables were HOT. I double checked the ignition switch position, did a quick check of wiring ( I have a 40 amp main fusible link for everything but the starter) and nothing looked wrong. I popped the multi-meter on and found there was a direct short somewhere, and after isolating the rest of the wiring, decided it was in the starter circuit. A bit more sluthing, and it turns out that the solenoid had an internal short...and maybe a lesser leak earlier. A whack with a hammer temporarily fixed the short and confirmed a bad solenoid. Of course, I had to tear the old one open, and find black coils and an arc path on the plunger. So it was guilty as charged, and only 51 years old. Sheesh!
$35 later I'm back to a good starting truck...and yeah, I want to see how far this 65 month Interstate battery will last!@
But I pulled the ground from the battery and was greeted by a HUGE arc which of course combined with hydrogen from the battery is a bit scary, to say the least. And the battery cables were HOT. I double checked the ignition switch position, did a quick check of wiring ( I have a 40 amp main fusible link for everything but the starter) and nothing looked wrong. I popped the multi-meter on and found there was a direct short somewhere, and after isolating the rest of the wiring, decided it was in the starter circuit. A bit more sluthing, and it turns out that the solenoid had an internal short...and maybe a lesser leak earlier. A whack with a hammer temporarily fixed the short and confirmed a bad solenoid. Of course, I had to tear the old one open, and find black coils and an arc path on the plunger. So it was guilty as charged, and only 51 years old. Sheesh!
$35 later I'm back to a good starting truck...and yeah, I want to see how far this 65 month Interstate battery will last!@
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