Bad Cell in Battery

[stickboy]

I have an interesting problem. I have a FB15d and when I go to start it it'll work fine most of the time but occasionally it'll act if the battery is dead. All the connections/grounds are good i've checked all those for continuity. The battery is completely charged. If I jump the tractor with a known good battery it starts just fine. The terminals are all clean and greased up well with no corrosion.

Could my battery show itself as charged and a good voltage but when you put a load on it just craps out? It sounds like a bad connection in the battery in one of the cells.

Any ideas?

 

[Soundguy]

Most likely a bad cell in the battery. There are other problems, like intermitant continuity from the posts due to internal breakage.. but sounds like you just have a weak battery... charges up fine, but can't carry its rated load.

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

If you wanted to, you could do a specific gravity test on each cell, and see what comes up.. but again.. really no way to 'fix' a battery.

Generally if you are looking for a cheap fix, you can find batteries for the size our yannies need in the 29.99 range for lower end, and upwards of 90.00 for some nicer ( sealed and or gell cells ).
( I went and got a nice shiny 29.99 special from wallymart for my 1700, replaced the cables/ends/ and all contacts between the alternator and starter / solenoid / key, and it starts great. )

Soundguy

 

[normde2001]

When you say the battery is fully charged, is it really? you must have at least 12.60 volts for a full charge, 12.45v = 75% charge,12.30v=50&,12.15v=25%. If it won't hold 12.6v, it's bad.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Excellent chance you have a battery with an intermittent cell to cell connector. The quick & dirty test for this is to put a charger no more than 20 amps on the battery, the next time it appears dead, for a couple minutes and see if the battery comes back to life.
If you don't have a charger, use jumpers for about 30 seconds & disconnect them, then try starting the tractor.
Intercell connectors in today's batterys are very small compared to the ones we used to have, and are prone to self disconnect from one of the plates.
If you have a bad intercell connector get rid of the battery, this condition can cause an internal explosion in a battery.