Odyssey Battery

[new2 7's]

Hi,

I'm selling my new Odyssey PC680 battery, I've decided to go with the next step up, the PC925 (I have a high compression motor and need the additional cranking power) so rather then ship it back to the company I purchased it from I'm offering it forsale.

My asking price is $85.00 plus shipping

Thanks,
Scott

[slomove]

Hmm, I have no doubt that the PC925 has a little more cranking power than the PC680 model. But there are people starting V8 engines with the smaller batteries.

If cranking is weak with the PC680 you may want to make sure that the battery is really responsible. Internally corroded or fatigued battery cables or cable terminals, too thin wires, tired solenoid contacts, bad ground return, internal wear and tear in the starter motor (or all of the above) are known to cause cranking weakness or failure, especially when hot. Most of these problems are not visually apparent and can slowly get worse over time.

Gert

[slngsht]

I had the PC680, and she had plenty of juice to crank 5.7L V8 with 10.1:1 CR.

What killed it was some constant draw when the car was off. I have since rewired the car, and not sure if the draw was from the PCM, or an actual wiring problem. Anyway, after a year of going totally dead and jumpstarting, she finally gave up the ghost.

[new2 7's]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the input, think maybe I should change out my Lucas Starter for a gear reduction unit.... maybe that will change the draw on the battery.
Do you ever disconnect the battery after running your cars? to stop any possible draw on it, I ask because I noticed this evening when I attempted to start my car that the battery was a little low on cranking power, but when I tried the PC925 it spun the motor over without any question.

[locostv8]

My Cobra sits a lot which drains the battery. I fixed that with a solar charger.

[slngsht]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the input, think maybe I should change out my Lucas Starter for a gear reduction unit.... maybe that will change the draw on the battery.
Do you ever disconnect the battery after running your cars? to stop any possible draw on it, I ask because I noticed this evening when I attempted to start my car that the battery was a little low on cranking power, but when I tried the PC925 it spun the motor over without any question.

In my case, if I disconnected my OBDII device, it was good for 3 days... If I disconnected the battery, it had no problem retaining charge after long periods of time. I don't have a batt kill switch... if I put one in, it'll be easy to just disconnect.

[slomove]

Hey Guys,
Do you ever disconnect the battery after running your cars?

Kind of because I happen to have a battery disconnect solenoid (http://home.earthlink.net/~slomove/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/cutoffsolenoid.jpg) (instead of the "red bone switch" ) that also functions as the main ignition switch. But even before I installed that I never disconnected the battery and had no problems. That obviously depends on the wiring of the individual car. If your car has something that keeps ticking with ignition off that will surely drain the battery after a while and it is not surprising that connecting a fresh one makes a difference.

If your starter should be older, you should consider your friendly neigborhood rebuild shop. Can be cheaper than a new gear reduction starter and you know it will fit.

Gert

[new2 7's]

The mechanic that finished my car last week was suggesting I put a gear reduction starter in for 2 reasons, less battery drain and the stock Lucas starters sylenoid sits lower then the bellhousing.... If I bottom out my car there goes my starters electrical system.
I tested my battery before, after taking it off the charger I have 12.65 or greater volts and after running my car for 5 minutes, the battery has approx 12.3 volts.... does that sound like a faulty battery cell?

[locostv8]

You might check your alternator under FULL load. I had a Firebird convert that drove me nuts with a battery problem. The battery would only fail after a foggy rainy night. I would check everything and everything would check good. A friend who had a shop had me come by and put an external amp meter on the car and had me start then turn EVERYTHING on lights on high, fog lights, radio, wipers, etc. At full demand my alternator was putting out about 5 amps less than the load.

[solder_guy]

I have the Odyssey 680MJ and a $40 recharger .. which is great! I am adding a batt cut off switch today.

Rob M.

[new2 7's]

Well, it looks like I'm going to stick with the PC680 for the time being.
I took my starter to a shop and they rebuilt the sylenoid today, it appears some of the internal parts were burnt, I reinstalled the starter and the battery fired the motor up without much effort at all.
Regarding the battery cut off switch, where are you mounting it? and how do you mount the switch.... from which electrical connections?

Scott

[solder_guy]

Regarding the battery cut off switch, where are you mounting it? and how do you mount the switch.... from which electrical connections?

Glad the starter has new life!

My battery cut off switch is the generic red key one which you can find at many auto parts stores. I'm planning to mount it on the far right side of the dash .. and have it stick from the back through the dash to the front and bolt in place. Three holes to drill to mount. The instructions suggest interrupting the pos terminal line .. which I plan to do .. but you could interrupt the ground line.

I bought the various crimp connectors and 5 feet of heavy copper cable wire .. and now that work is slow .. I'm beginning to cut and crimp right now (0230 am EDT).

And I plan to connect the special charger terminals at the dash so I can plug in and charge with the system disconnected too!

Rob M.

[slngsht]

Well, it looks like I'm going to stick with the PC680 for the time being.
I took my starter to a shop and they rebuilt the sylenoid today, it appears some of the internal parts were burnt, I reinstalled the starter and the battery fired the motor up without much effort at all.
Regarding the battery cut off switch, where are you mounting it? and how do you mount the switch.... from which electrical connections?

Scott

Scott, I don't know the specifics 100%, but I believe these to be true...

If you plan to race your car (and even if you don't - it's not a bad idea):

Place the kill switch at a location accessible from outside the car, as well as to you in your driving position. Side of the cawl will work for that. I *think* certain SCCA classes have rules regarding this.

The kill switch has to kill EVERYTHING that goes to the battery, so you'd probably want it intercepting the main battery cable.

Also, look into whether there are straight switches, or relayed switches.

This is the extent of my knowledge (or gossip) on this topic :lol:

[new2 7's]

Hey guys,
I drove my car around the block a few times today, when I came back to my house I stalled the motor.... that wasn't a problem.... done it before and it always fires up again.
This time it didn't, the battery was drained after a 1 mile drive.... it was down to about 10 percent of the start-up required amperage.
Does this problem sound like a bad alternator? or something else? I've checked my electrical connections all over the car and nothing seems to be bleeding off serious voltage.

Scott

[new2 7's]

Additional information, I may have been to quick to say nothing was draining my system.
When I put the tester light on the positive side of my coil while the motor is running, it causes the motor to stall immediately, should I assume I have a bad coil?

[slngsht]

Do you have a volt meter handy?

If you do, see what the voltage is when the car is running. If your alternator is working, it should read something >12 V... usually around 13.5 to 14V.


Maybe you have a bad tester light :lol:

[11Budlite]

Hi Scott,
Can you get a voltage reading when the car is running? Most will show a little above 14v when running. Did your mechanic perform a load test on your battery? If I remember correctly, you make sure your battery is fully charged, and then you put a specific amperage load on it (by battery capacity), and then read the voltage to tell if your battery is bad or not. And is the starter mounted near the exhaust? Some times heat soak can do a number on the starter's performance. And if you want to tell if there is a load on the battery when the car is shut off, just disconnect the main ground cable and hook up a test light between the battery lug and the cable. If the test light lights, there's a draw that will kill your battery. Then you can disconnect the fuses one at a time to determine which circuit the draw is in.

As far as where to mount a cut-off switch, most that I have seen mount in the open triangle in the windshield support on the passenger side (depends on where your battery is mounted). See this link for instructions: http://7faq.com/owbase/ow.asp?HowDoI%2FFitA_BatteryMasterSwitch

Hope this helps, Bruce

[new2 7's]

Hi Bruce
I just performed the check, removing the negative battery lead and tested the positive.... the light didn't go on, then I reconnected the negative lead and the test light went on.
I restarted my motor, I did a tester light test on the coil and the following happened:
The positive terminal on the coil light the tester light
The negative terminal on the coil sparked when I touched the tester light to it and the motor stalled immediately.
Scott

[slomove]

Not too surprising when you interfere with the ecu ignition control. The positive side of the coil is always on 12V and the "negative" side is switched by the ECU. Be careful, a wrong short can destroy the ECU. Or do you have a dizzy?

[new2 7's]

I dont have an ECU on my car, only an electronic distributor (Pertronix Unit) and Coil

[new2 7's]

I recently installed a new Facet electronic fuel pump, the pump may not be grounded correctly.... would that cause a drain on my electrical system when the motor is running?

[slngsht]

No. If something is not grounded right, it won't be able to function properly because current can't get through, so it wouldn't be a "drain" on the system. If any one component was drawing enough current to draw down your battery while the car is running with a good alternator, you'd blow a fuse.

If your alternator is OK, make sure you check the connections to it, both the main battery connection, and the signal wire.

[new2 7's]

I checked my alternator connection, the stud on the back is loose and wont stay firmly tightened.
Also, I checked the voltage today at the battery and the alternator.
The battery was showing about 12.6 while running and the alternator was about about the same level, about 12.2 or 4
The volt meter I purchased is an analog type and it instruction say a possible +/- 5%
Do the numbers sound like the alternator is bad?

[slngsht]

Yes, you should be well above 12 volts... closer to 14, if not slightly above 14.

[slngsht]

Is the stud for the main battery connection at the back of the alternator? Perhaps that's the problem.

[slomove]

Does not look right....If anything the alternator voltage should be a tad higher than the battery when running (over 1500 rpm) and anyway 13.5-14.5 volts (no significant load). A lose stud does not sound promising, too :d

Do you have an alternator light and does it go out when running?

The whole thing depends on the style of alternator, i.e. 1-wire (rare), 3-wire or 4-wire. but in any case the voltage is low.

If you run out of ideas you may want to take it to an alternator shop for a check-up.

Gert

[new2 7's]

Thanks, I pulled the alternator off the motor, the stud broke off as I was starting the removal of the wire.... I have a single wire alternator.... and whats left of the stud wobbles around a little bit (approx 1/16 of an inch of wobble) and doesnt tighten.
I'm going to take it to the shop in the morning to have it tested and see if it can be fixed....

[new2 7's]

Just got my alternator back from the shop, reinstalled it and so far it appears the battery problem was an alternator problem.... I'm going to take my car for a short drive and see if the battery retains it's starting power.

Thanks for all the help.

Scott

[slngsht]

Sounds like a good excuse for a nice drive ;)

Enjoy

:cheers: