Interesting Battery Coincidence

Yesterday, a local man called to see my 55 Ford 860 which is currently advertised on CL.

Knowing that it had not been started for about six weeks, I decided to start it before he arrived. I usually do not do this so that potential buyers can see a cold start, but the temperature was around 40 F and the 860 has summer formula gasoline in it, which will make it start much harder in cold weather.

Hmmm, no crank. I always charge storage batteries periodically during periods of non use and this one had been charged about two weeks ago.

Checked records and found that battery had been installed 11/10. OK, eight years pretty good for 6V, but time for replacement. Connected AC charger/booster and 860 started right up. Everything working as it should.

Caller arrived and looked at tractor for over an hour. I explained to him upon arrival that battery had failed and I would replace it whether he bought it or not.

Caller interested in tractor but he told me that he wanted it to replace a worn out 60 PTO HP IH 656 diesel to run a round baler. I told him that it was not big enough and he went on his way. Had he told me what he had planned to use it for on the telephone I could have saved him a trip but he had not. Fortunately, he was only about 10 miles away.

Decided to remove battery from non used 64, 4 cylinder 4000 potential retirement project to install in 860 for sale. Will buy new battery for 4000 in future. Did so this morning. Again no start. 4000 had not been started in months but battery had been charged routinely with maintainer every 4-5 weeks. Checked records again and found that 4000 battery had also been installed in 11/10. Coincidence.

More of a coincidence that both batteries installed at same time failed at same time. Batteries were identical and from receipts bought from same store in same month but not same day. Never happened to me before.

Interesting

Dean

Have you had some really cold weather lately? I think that will do in a marginal old battery sometimes.

Your interested party may have gotten the 860 confused with an 8600. What is summer formula gasoline?

Read link below if you want to know what summer blend is.
all you want to know about gasoline

Not really cold but mid-high 20s in the fall.

These past few years, I've been using battery maintainers rather than old style chargers to keep batteries charged during periods of non use. Doing so allows me to forget how long I've had one connected before rotating it to another battery.

I usually leave them on for a few days, well past the indicator lights changing from charging to maintenance mode.

Who knows how the internal microprocessors are programmed.

Similar things happen with the new fangled battery testers that do not perform a proper load test. If a fully charged battery tests bad, it almost certainly is but if it tests good, who knows.

Dean

Gasoline formulas change with the seasons.

Gasoline sold in the summer is less volatile so as to reduce evaporative emissions.

Gasoline sold in the winter is more volatile so as to insure (or help) starting at low temperatures.

Yes, times are changing so who knows what the latest federale regs say.

That said, your low compression 6V tractor will start much more easily in the winter if the gasoline in the tank was not bought in July.

Yet another issue to be concerned with thanks to the federales.

Dean

Winter blend is why gas mileage goes down in winter in areas that have winter
blends.

that data was dated 2013 so it is outdated

Don't think so, show crop.

He knew vintage Fords rather well, and owned a 640.

Surprisingly, he had been using his 640 to move round bales on the three point.

He was planning to replace both the IH 656 and the Ford 640 with my 860.

Dean

Of course, and gasoline formulas vary by location, and by state.

Formulas may well not change seasonally in the SW but they do in the seasonal areas of the US.

Who knows what happens outside of the US.

Dean

It is one of the reasons.

Dean

It would be nice if all batteries were that consistant.

Within a 2 week period this summer, my father had to replace the battery in his 2013 Chevy pickup, my mother’s ‘03 Caddy, his zero turn mower, all three batteries in his boat. Also during that period, I had to put a battery in my son’s ‘03 Avalanche. We bought it from my father.......

-Scott

Damn.

I feel much better now.

Dean

Well plant I?m working at is blending butane into the winter gas
to give it high vapour pressure so things will start better.

(quoted from post at 17:10:41 12/16/18) Well plant I?m working at is blending butane into the winter gas
to give it high vapour pressure so things will start better.

Click to expand...

Cool, carbonated gasoline. Kind of like sparkling cider?

-Scott

Well, I had one today.

I got the water pump and timing belt replaced in the Honda, made sure it turned freely. It cranked just fine, popped right off and ran smooth, thought all was good. Shut it off, put wheel back on and let it down off the jack. I then went to restart it and no movement, lights went out when I tried to crank. My first thought was new belt failed and it got out of time. That got me down, so pulled wheel and got to the front pulley. I put a ratchet on it and it turned smoothly several rotations, so that made me feel better. I got the meter out and battery was at 12.2 volts, turned just ignition on, dropped to 10 volts, hit starter dropped to 8.

The battery is only 18 months old, at least it died in the shop.

There was a short 6 gauge ground wire from the battery negative post to the body of the 1998 Honda van my grandson had. It broke one day and cause a lot of weird things to happen until I found it. It was about 4 inches long and went directly from the battery cable end to the radiator holding frame bolt. I replaced it and things started working better. The main ground cable goes to the engine block and I guess the rubber engine and transmission mounts isolate it enough to need that ground wire. Gene Davis

A bad cable was second thought after locked engine, I measured lead to lead on the battery.

I had a 65 GTO with a Sears Die Hard battery always cranked just fine,pulled in to get gas when I went to start the car the battery was dead as a door knob.Have heard of other
Die Hard batteries doing the same thing.

Those batteries had sympathy for each other. One did not want to die with out the other.