battery problems

My WD45 which I bought a year ago used to start fine and crank over easily. Then, after it sat for a couple months over the summer, it would not turn over. The battery was replaced after it would not charge.

The new battery, a commercial heavy duty with plenty of power did the same thing, acting dead and did not want to crank it.

I returned the battery for a replacement after it tested bad at the store. Now, the new one is doing the same thing. I cleaned all terminals, ground, starter connections. I am lost as to what the problem is, aside from being a bad starter. Should I hook it to my pickup to see if that will crank the starter? Your help is much welcomed. Thanks

Still 6-volt system? Are these batteries the correct voltage? Double check that the ground cable is heavy guage.

It is a 12 volt system, ground and lead cable to starter is heavy duty.

Alternator or genny?? Either way I'll almost bet you have a bad VR which is causing the battery to be drained slowly but enough to make it go bad. A lot of times with a bad VR they charge the battery to much and or wrong and then drain it and that in turn takes out the battery in such a way that it will not hold a charge

Is it one of those Delco self exciter internal regulator jobs? If so,they'll draw the battery down from sitting. I put one on my 1550 Oliver. Everybody told me I was crazy when I told them how QUICK it would run down. My brother works in an auto parts store and said that if they're going to sit for any length of time,take a cable off the battery,but mine would be dead in a few days. I finally cut the wire that goes to it,wired in into a good heavy toggle and shut it off everytime I shut the tractor off,flip it back on when I start it. Have it mounted right next to the ignition switch. Been on there for probably seven or eight years now and hasn't gone dead since.

Heavy duty? Hmmmmm....

What gauge are ALL of the battery cables?

12V system? Hmmmmm....

12V starter? Didn't think so. Does the starter turn enough to cause the starter drive to engage the ring gear?

Dean

Install a master switch in the ground cable. This will isolate the battery from ground. It probably has a bad regulator as Old suggested. I had an old Seville Cadillac and it would do the same thing until I put a master switch on it. The military has used these for years. Hal

(quoted from post at 16:21:14 12/26/09) My WD45 which I bought a year ago used to start fine and crank over easily. Then, after it sat for a couple months over the summer, it would not turn over. The battery was replaced after it would not charge.

The new battery, a commercial heavy duty with plenty of power did the same thing, acting dead and did not want to crank it.

I returned the battery for a replacement after it tested bad at the store. Now, the new one is doing the same thing. I cleaned all terminals, ground, starter connections. I am lost as to what the problem is, aside from being a bad starter. Should I hook it to my pickup to see if that will crank the starter? Your help is much welcomed. Thanks

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A lead acid battery that isn't kept fully charged will be ruined.

Just a thought, but if you tried starting it with a low battery, the starter might be stuck. It can usually be freed up by putting it in high gear & rocking it backwards. My WD has done that a couple of times.

tractormiallis,
The first thing to do is check the output of the charging system. Take your multimeter and measure the battery voltage at the battery terminals, while the tractor is running. A 12 volt system better have from 14.0 to 14.9 volts. 14.3 volts is the sweet spot. If it is maintaining less voltage, your battery is being slowly killed. Higher voltages decrease your battery's useful life expectancy. A charged twelve volt battery maintains 13.6 volts at rest.

Every time a battery is taken to stone dead zero volts, it loses half of it's remaining cranking output. If you take a 1000CCA battery to zero twice, it only has 250CCAs left.

When you shut down the tractor, remove the regulator to battery post at the regulator. See if there is any sign of a ground at the regulator where the battery terminal was. If you do not get true infinite ohms, repair or replace the regulator. If you have an alternator, there will be about ten milliamp constant drain at rest. This slow discharge will kill a battery in about ten months. A car clock draws more than this anyway. A generator regulator should allow no energy to pass at rest. Master kill switches are what mechanics without electrical knowledge use, to solve problems they can not find.

Happy motoring.
Charlie

I would pretty much agree except a fully charged 12V battery should have a terminal voltage of 12.6V, not 13.6V.
13.8V is lots for long duration operation in hot weather. A start-stop putting around machine in cool weather certainly needs 14.5V to 14.8V.
While a master isolation switch is a jackleg mechanics fix for leakage current. The use of a master disconnect switch on any and every machine placed into extended storage is a good idea.
Countless machines,sheds and barns burned due to electrical faults/mouse chewing while the machine is parked.

kinda sounds to me like the starter might be locked up or stuck. put 'er in 4th and rock it back and fourth a bit and then try it and if that dont work i'd say take a look at the starter. somthing could be stuck internaly from sitting. not an expert by far but just a few thoughts
M Puller