hi all, first post here and hope you can help me out. i recently got a CASE 480 ELL with loader and gannon. it has the cummins 4-390 diesel in it. if it has sat for a day, the engine will hardly turn over and clicks. i can jump start it off of my F350 and it will start right up. if i drive it for a little while, it will start right up when i try again right afterwards. it has a 650 CCA battery in it that tests fine with a load tester. the alternator charges at 13.8v just fine. the battery cables were highly corroed so i made some out of 2/0 cable, and it made no difference. i put a battery disconnect switch on the negative terminal and no different. switched to the positive side thinking there was a parsitic load that had its own ground, no difference. i am stumped. any suggestions? thanks tom
Welcome to HEF encantotom! Make sure the ground at the chassis is clean & tight. Often an extra ground cable from the battery direct to the starter mounting bolts makes a difference. Does it have the nipondenso gear type starter motor? These will perform much better than the direct bosch/lucas/delco type during cold start.
You have a battery with a small short in one of the cells. What happens is a piece of the cell comes loose and causes a small short which drains the cell in a few hours but will charge up just fine. There are ways of burning out the short but it is to dangerous to describe.
thanks for the welcome and comments. for the battery, would it load test ok with the small short? or is it just shorted when the piece of the cell floats around? thanks tom
My first guess is the battery also. Charge it up overnight, with one cable disconnected, then let it sit for 24 hours and try to start it, or load test the battery. I bet the battery has lost it's charge like repowerguy said.
The bat hasn't lost its charge Delmer it has a internal short in a cell, it will recharge but will go dead in a few hours, kinda like leaving the lights on. You can burn out the short with a dc welder, but it is rather dangerous to do. I have personally done it many times but that's just me! If you want the details on how to I can tell you how encantotom.
If I were replacing that battery I sure would put a much heavier cranking amps than 650 if you are in a cold climate area, with Diesels I put the heaviest cranking amps battery that will fit the box, I view 650 cranking amps as way to small for any Diesel engine of that displacement. Mel.
You seem to be convinced of that, but I'm just a little skeptical. Always helps to start with a charged battery in the first place. And a dead battery that's been jumped and then run for long enough that it starts the engine back up immediately after it was shut off is NOT charged.
Sorry repowerguy but suggesting he hook up a welder to any battery is just bad advice. I have seen it done many times . I condemn such a practice myself. Two different times the battery's exploded violently. I was there and witnessed it. Both times the persons involved suffered no permanent eye damage. Plus perfectly good battery's were destroyed. encantutom; Put a new 1000 amp battery in it and I bet your problem is resolved.
If it will start by jumping it with jumpers easily that is almost a dead giveaway that the battery is weak since you have eliminated draw as an issue. The starter would almost be eliminated as the cause IMHO. what does the battery load test after sitting uncharged for a day or two look like. I second the 1000 amp battery post.
no worries, there will be no welder action on the battery. i will just go get a high cca battery and put it in. i was going to today but got sidetracked working on something else. i will let you know how it goes. tom