Caprice battery

[kevm14]

Of course this would happen when I need to go to New London.

I go out to my Caprice and when I went to start it, it cranked very slowly. In fact, I stopped and retried to make sure it wasn't my imagination. Yup, slow. It did start and run but I shut it off again to check the voltage. The volt meter didn't look too healthy after I shut it off so I got my DVM to see for sure. Alarmingly, it was like 9.8V, resting! That's one dead battery. Amazingly, it still could crank the engine over and once running, the alternator was doing fine at 14.4V. Sure seems like a battery issue.

Against my better judgment, and without locating my jumper cables, I decided to make the 45 minute drive to New London anyway.

When I got there, I shut the engine off and turned the key back to run to see what the volt meter registered. It looked fine so I figured maybe I'll be ok.

After work, I walked back to the car and turned the key to on. The volt meter looked REALLY bad. I tried cranking and it seemed to barely turn. Then I texted Ed that I would need a jump and tried cranking again. Amazingly, it got a few revolutions and fired up! Phew.

Once running I searched my glovebox for the Napa receipt. I went out and checked the battery and it's from 2007! So...that seems acceptable. I thought I replaced it more recently though.

So I went to Walmart looking for an Everstart Maxx in Group 34/78 (dual terminal). No such beast. Argh.

I'll just buy another Napa Group 34/78 75XDT800. At like $181...oh well.

[kevm14]

Turns out I did not have the 75XDT800 but I bought it anyway.

Installed it tonight. Cranks wicked fast now. Hopefully, I'm done. We'll see tomorrow morning if I have some kind of draw. I doubt it.

[kevm14]

It is indeed fixed. Cranks nice and fast now, even after sitting. Now I just need to bring the battery in to get my $18 core charge back...