So... as of last night I was thinking "well it's supposed to be around 15F this morning so I'll see how my 83' 300D handles that temp". Woke up this morning and it was 25F, Pff, no problem. Well... Something funky seemingly with the battery... It ran the glow plugs fine, but barely turned over the engine. OK, get the charger... Try to start. Get some almost starting, but not quite. So... after a good while of monkeying I found out: A) The battery charger seemed to think that the battery was about full, yet it would barely turn the engine over on it's own. (Have I got some issue where my battery still has voltage, but has lost it's amps?)
B) My fuel gauge has only ever read lower than normal, but apparently the sputtering I dealt with last night on the side of the road for a few minutes was because I was down to about a gallon of fuel and while sitting in the driveway with the left side lower there was effectively no fuel. Had to borrow a couple gallons of kerosene from the farm and prime for a while. I filled her up with diesel this morning and she started fine after that. We'll see how she does this afternoon. Of course it's supposed to be up to around 40F or higher by then. I'm just surprised, this battery has yet to show any problems (other than when the dog turns on the hazard lights for a few hours and I then try to start it) and it showed no problems yesterday at 20F a couple times. But this morning it suddenly loses amps? (I'm assuming the battery charger is looking at voltage and that the voltage must be fairly high if it's showing as pretty much full...) Ahh well... If the battery IS the problem, seems like someone said that Wal-mart had a 1000Amp battery that was a direct replacement? Anyone have the model number? Or somewhere else where I could get a reasonably priced GOOD battery? i.e. I don't want to pay 3 times as much for the same battery that says "Mercedes" on it and I don't want to get a 350amp battery.... Thanks! Levi (:
