Hi guys, Just a couple of recommendations about keeping your automotive, boat or RV battery alive.
When disconnecting or removing a battery never and I mean never disconnect the positive cable first. You run the risk of striking an arc and taking out a whole bunch of expensive electronics particularly on newer vehicles. Remember disconnect the negative cable first and reconnect it last. Never coat a battery connection with any kind of Greece. Although Greece in its own right is not a conductor, the dirt and dust particles that adhere to this type of material are. You want a commercially produced battery terminal protectant that dries quickly and hard. I have used clear lacquer in a pinch also if the woman in your life has a sense of humor you can use clear fingernail polish. When servicing or installing a battery make certain the felt terminal pads are fitted over the battery connection point prior to installing the cable. These guys are coated with some kind of secret sauce that will slow down the corrosion process. When removing the battery cable clamp from the battery terminal post never-ever-ever use a pair of pliers to twist off the connector. Once the bolt is loosened up and you can't remove it by rotating it gently by hand hit the local parts house and purchase a "battery terminal puller" these guys only run a few bucks and can save you a broken post on an $80.00 battery. We haven't even touched on cleaning, testing, cable inspection or replacement. Damn don... You could do an entire show on battery and primary charging systems and still not cover all of the good stuff. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Don Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 10:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Batteries: Car's/Van's Good tip. I have all so heard with the newer cars/trucks now days, that you should not give a person a jump start? Any truth too that, are is it BS? Don ----- Original Message ----- From: Roger Bachelder To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 1:38 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] Batteries: Car's/Van's Hi Don, If i may add one thing here to Geno's great tips. if you are concerned about the battery dieing because of seldom use of a vehicle, Just disconnect the negative terminal. Because you break the current when doing this, there will be no drain from anything. So when you reconnect the terminal the battery will be ready to go. HTH Roger C Bachelder 3rd [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Don Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 11:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Batteries: Car's/Van's Geno, some good tips here, thanks for sending them along. I bet working with triple A, you here about just all kinds of auto battery problems. Regards Don ----- Original Message ----- From: Geno69 To: blindhandyman@ <mailto:blindhandyman%40yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 4:20 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Batteries: Car's/Van's I just thought , in not reading all the pieces to the battery issue. A few suggest hints might been order. A: After a battery starts getting in years. This depending on the type of battery. If the car or van or truck is not being used . Like sitting for a two to three week period and especially sitting a month or more. A: if there is instruments hooked up in the dash-board to the battery (older models) the battery is being used by these instruments. B: on the new modern cars, Vans and trucks, especially true with all the instruments hooked up. What is suggested is every three days run the unit for a half period to keep the battery in top working condition. During the winter time it is every other day run it for a half hour. If not using and don't want to bother with turning on the unit and running it for period of time, because, the price of gas. Especially if going to sit for a long period of time. This means a month or more. First off make sure that the gas tank is full and dropping as suggested or recommended dry gas to the full tank of gas. Then disconnect and remove the battery and place on a wooden block away from a cement wall and keep off a cement floor! Keeping it in a semi warm or warm room When ready can take it back out and install and of course some of the instruments will have to be reset. The two cables and the clamps that go on the positive and negative poles should be wrapped up with something that won't attract moisture, keeping them dry. Sometimes even suggesting Vaseline. If one doesn't know how to do this task, then, either find someone that does for removing or and installing the battery. If not leave well enough alone. Just know one will need to have a jump start. If there is white power around the positive and negative poles this means that they need to be cleaned and there might be other issues to look at. Again if a person knows what to do. Removing the clamps and cleaning them and the poles or some clamps to clamp and fasten too. A simple thing as baking soda and little water can clean the battery and the connecter clamps. Sometimes recommend a light course sand paper to clean. Just a thought. Geno [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions >From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ If you would like to join the Blind Computing list, then visit the following address for more information: http://jaws-users.com/mailman/listinfo/blind-computing_jaws- users.com For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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