Battery experts

[camsaure]

I have a 50 FL that is soon to be on the road again. I do have a new POS (piece of sh..) India battery that I am not enthusiastic about using. Recently I was in my mothers basement and found a used genuine HD battery that was from either my 1945 knuck or 49 pan. It has most likely been there since about 1972 or 73. I thought what the heck and put it on a battery maintainer for the last 3 weeks. I checked yesterday and it will light a test light, (didn't have my multimeter handy, will check with that later). It would be great if I could rejuvenate this battery and run it. So the questions to those of you whom are knowlegable on this are: would it be best to drain and replace the acid or even drain, rinse and then replace the acid, then recharge. Anyone ever had any luck with such a venture? What are your thoughts on the best procedure? Thanks, Cam

[bstevens479]

back in the 70's young, dumb & no money had same idea dumped out old acid rinsed out with garden hose added new acid [easy to get back then] charged over night & I got a full year out of that batt. it's worth a try

[sirhrmechanic]

I've not done it myself, but almost 15 years ago, another shop that does the same kind of work we do got in a car with its original 1925 British Exide battery. They got the top off, completely dismantled the cells and hand-cleaned all the plates with scotch-brite and a LOT of fresh water. That battery is still working fine now. Those old batteries were pretty well made. I saw pictures of the process and the inside of the battery was pretty robust.

So I would not hesitate to flush the battery and try some new acid.

Off-the-wall thought... but if the top will not come off (plastic welded shut), I wonder if putting in a slurry of sand and water and then vibrating or shaking or rotating an antique battery and letting the abrasive slurry work around inside would clean the plates? What kills the batteries is having the anodes, etc. "salt up" which isolates the lead from the acid. If you can clean the oxidation, etc. off through some abrasive process you might get a long life out of a battery... And it probably goes w.out saying that cleaning out the abrasive will be pretty key. But you should be able to flush it all out. That said, some modern batteries have a 'solid' side of the plate and a 'porous' side of the lead plate with a lot more surface area. Such a battery would not be at all suitable for any kind of foreign material.

It's nothing that I've tried myself. But it might be worth a try with an antique battery -- not a modern one. Has anyone tried anything similar with an MC cell? Anyone want to try it and see how it works?

Last thought, JC Whitney used to sell a de-sulphiting (SP?) chemical. As anything from JCW.. maybe snake oil, maybe wunder-product. But perhaps someone knows more. For modern battery, just replace. But, as I mentioned above, antique batteries were made to last far longer than a modern one and many were re-buildable.

Cheers,

Sirhr

[camsaure]

IT WORKS, I was successful in getting the old battery rejuvenated. That makes me wonder why I replaced it in the first place back in the late 60s or early 70s. It must have been because they were around $18 back then. The battery never had the dates on the label punched out, they range from 68 to 72. I rinsed it out, refilled with distilled water, put on maintainer for 3 days, dumped the water and rinsed again. I then refilled with acid and put on maintainer for 24 hrs. It has held a charge for 10 days now and seems to stand up to a load. I guess I will find out how long it lasts.

[Robert Luland]

Pierce, Got a great short story for ya. Back in 1975 in Soho (Lower Manhattan) there was a newspaper office I use to do work for. They rented the back portion of the loft to a company that made that bullshit X-15 battery rejuvenator that JCW used to sell. It was always on the inside of the front cover of the catalog. It was this big vat of pink ooze and the dopers they had working would fill little white squeeze tubes all day long. I don't know what was in the vat but you statement on snake oil pretty well sums it up. Bob

[T. Cotten]

Cam!

I'm no expert, but a load test is encouraging.

If it's a "classic" battery for your machine, and wanted a "last hurrah" for glory at a meet, (or to help cash in or whatever), I would be/am tempted to do the same.
(Some recipes prescribe hot saturated baking soda solution to desulphate.)

But please beware that generators suffer when time-bomb batteries finally give up, and their armature over-heats.

Considering the expense of armatures, and their replacement, compared to a battery swap, it makes some sense to just toss in a cheap battery every spring.

....Cotten
PS: That 'Made in India' battery worked well for some, not so well for some. But please don't pollute and throw it in anyone's dumpster but mine.
If nothing else, you will feel better about sawing and gutting it for a modern AGM, or whatever, than cutting up the more modern one.
Blink three times, and it will be a "collectible'!