any auto sparks or competant electricians

[muskie]

got a prob with my safari 24v. Batteries seem to be going dead however show 12.3v and 12.1v, when i check with meter. had the batts tested at autosparks and he said nothing wrong and are as new, which they are, only 2 months old.

anyway. turn the ign on and the dash meter shows the level to be right down to nothing and when you go to start the starter relay just clicks. put the lights on and they are bright as, difficult to explain but any ideas...

the only draw on the batts is the memory from the radio, the only other thing i have done is put a new relay in the factory spotties circuit a few weeks ago..

ANY IDEAS

[coxsy]

hi ya sounds like the batteries are on their way out ,mine did the same a few months ago , replaced them at $225 each

[KiwiBacon]

Have you got either a multimeter which can read 10amps current or a clamp meter?

If so, turn everything off and put the clamp meter around each battery earth lead, see what's still flowing.
If there's nothing significant, then yeah I'd question the batteries. If there is significant drain (0.3 amp or more) then it can be very difficult to nail down.

[tweake]

whats the voltage when the motors running? possible they are not getting full voltage ie alt or connection problem.

have you charged them with a charger?

are you running any 12volt items off just one battery?

[muskie]

whats the voltage when the motors running? possible they are not getting full voltage ie alt or connection problem.

have you charged them with a charger?

are you running any 12volt items off just one battery?

yep charged with a charger, when the truck was running the factory guage in the dash was showing just over half way (24v plus a little bit) nothing is running off just one battery.....lights still shine brightly, but guage in dash shows just over the 12v mark, glow plug light in dash takes alot longer time to go out, all leads to faulty batts but they show a full charge, and auto spark told me they were good 2 weeks ago, wish i had a spare set to try..... i hate electrical problems

[SMOKEY]

If you don't have any meters, turn everything electrical off in the vehicle, try removing the Neg; earth terminal from the battery, this is best done in the dark and see if you can see or hear any electrical flash, flick the clamp on and off the terminal and observe, this will tell you if you have any drain on the batteries when you think every thing is turned off. A bit agricultural but how do you think we did things before we got all this flash diagnostic equipment .
If all tests OK, get your batteries fully charged and get your workshop/battery shop to do a load test on the batteries, the answer may be there.

TRY STARTING WITH THE CRANK HANDLE NO DON'T,

FITZY.

[muskie]

If you don't have any meters, turn everything electrical off in the vehicle, try removing the Neg; earth terminal from the battery, this is best done in the dark and see if you can see or hear any electrical flash, flick the clamp on and off the terminal and observe, this will tell you if you have any drain on the batteries when you think every thing is turned off. A bit agricultural but how do you think we did things before we got all this flash diagnostic equipment .
If all tests OK, get your batteries fully charged and get your workshop/battery shop to do a load test on the batteries, the answer may be there.

TRY STARTING WITH THE CRANK HANDLE NO DON'T,

FITZY.

ok, just been and done that, nothing on at all, even disconnected led clock and memory for radio, went under bonnet and disconnected (from passengers side battery) neg earth from battery, the one which connects from - neg on battery straight to car body/chassis, did it in the dark and there are absolutly no sparks whatsoever.... another finger pointing towards batteries???

[Sadam_Husain]

If the lights are bright but the starter solinoid just clicks it might be a bad engine earth, try connecting a temp earth to the engine and see if it starts?

[4WDbits]

I've had two batteries tested in the past, both time the testing was done using special equipment (once by the AA) and both times the result was 'batteries are OK', both times the batteries were stuffed or almost stuffed.
Are the lights normal brightness when the batteries are fine or just bright?

[Heath]

I wpuld've said bad earth myself but get a second opinon on the batts. Charge em and then load test them (makes them hiss a bit). Failing that what about a fault in the starter?

My lux had problems getting power to the starter and I replaced the battery lines with real thick cables (good quality cable too), and cleaned up the connection points. Ran like a dream. well until the starter solenoid died and then the carb shit itself and then the lpg mixer crapped itself and then the alternator threw in the towel also.

I dont own that truck anymore.

I'd say check the earths and the starter and batts.

Heath

[muskie]

i will see if i can borrow a couple of batts somewhere to try, atleast that will eliminate or confirm the batts.

[tallsam66]

Check the battery terminals are clean & tight..i had a loose one on my hilux a while ago....It was tightened up to the max but was corroded so badly that it wasnt making good contact.I replaced it & now it turns over twice as fast.The lights etc went fine....just wasnt able to allow big currents to flow.

[tweake]

whats the voltage when the motors running? possible they are not getting full voltage ie alt or connection problem.

have you charged them with a charger?

are you running any 12volt items off just one battery?

yep charged with a charger, when the truck was running the factory guage in the dash was showing just over half way (24v plus a little bit) nothing is running off just one battery.....lights still shine brightly, but guage in dash shows just over the 12v mark, glow plug light in dash takes alot longer time to go out, all leads to faulty batts but they show a full charge, and auto spark told me they were good 2 weeks ago, wish i had a spare set to try..... i hate electrical problems

what sort of charger did you use to charge them? whats the voltage after charging (need to wait a while before checking voltage)?

is the voltage dropping when you try to start? if not you proberly have a fualty connection. check you havn't got any corroded earths especially off the starter and engine.

[COMILUX]

had similar problem wih my hilux, turned out to be a loose battery earth at the engine block.

[darinz]

I'd be checking the terminals and all earth conections, as it sounds like a bad conection.
Also you should be getting aroung 28 volts with the engine running. If you only have 24v then your alternator needs checking as well. Same principle as a 12v charging at 14 volts.

[muskie]

thanks for the help guys, just tryed another battery on the passengers side and she fired up as quick as no messing, although the batts are only 6-8 mnths old it would appear that one is no good, pity i dont have a reciept as previous owner bought them... i think i know what may have been the prob, the guy who owned it previously only used the truck once a month to tow a boat and he also had the radio memory connected straight to the batt, he did say he occasionally had to charge that battery, i suppose it has just been fried with all the charging...

[tallsam66]

Usually batteries have a date stamp on them..you should be able to take it to a battery dealer they they will be able to tell you how old it is & if still under warranty should sort it out for you .

[tweake]

he also had the radio memory connected straight to the batt,

i thought you said nothing was connected to just one battery.

having an item connected to just one battery will usually stuff the battery and often the alt regulator (especially so with RT's)

replace both batteries, typically one fails and it kills the other. replace and charge them as sets not individually.

[muskie]

he also had the radio memory connected straight to the batt,

i thought you said nothing was connected to just one battery.

having an item connected to just one battery will usually stuff the battery and often the alt regulator (especially so with RT's)

replace both batteries, typically one fails and it kills the other. replace and charge them as sets not individually.

nothing was conected to one battery, i corrected that the day i bought it around 5 months ago

[tweake]

my bad, i should have asked if anything HAD ben running on one battery

one dead battery, change them both otherwise the old one will end up killing the new one.

[muskie]

right everything seems ok with starting etc now but i have checked the charge rate with a meter on each battery, one is showing 15.3 and the other is snowing 12.9 with the vehicle running on high idle, passenger side showing higher than drivers side, can i consider this ok or not

[tweake]

open to correction as always but with a 24 volt system shouldn't the first bat read ~27volt and the other ~13.5volt while under charge ?? (measure from + terminal to chassi)

[KiwiBacon]

open to correction as always but with a 24 volt system shouldn't the first bat read ~27volt and the other ~13.5volt while under charge ?? (measure from + terminal to chassi)

You are correct. But most people simply measure post-post on each battery. That'll be 13.5-14.7v for most systems.
My 4wd starts in series (24v) but charging and normal running is in parrallel (12v).