It has been some time since I have had my 64 Coupe de Ville "Dino" out as it has a lifter problem I need to address and the battery had died, but put a new battery in yesterday and between the rains backed him out of the garage to mingle with his other Cadillac Family, then took him for a spin. Sure seemed good to get my old friend out to stretch his legs! He will be 55 on March 19 ... so got to pay the Grand Ole Fella some respect ... although I am not far behind Dino, with my 55th birthday later in the year in December!

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That's been photo shopped :-) ...... did you really get Dino out?

Yeah, a lot of things going on but with the 55th Birthday of Dino I wanted to at least fire 'em up!  With the leg injury & surgery that put our home addition several month's out, valve lifter issue that is persistent and not going away, and finally the death of my expensive original style battery (case is original specs, AGM battery inside), Dino was down and out! 

I tried everything under the sun to revive the battery, and knowing the fact that Restoration Battery was no longer in business, and Antique Auto Battery which sourced the batteries for RB had been sold, I was pretty sure I would just have to bite the bullet and buy another bullet.  Since I like having a good backup battery I bought a 930 CA AutoZone Duralast Gold Group 27 battery.  After struggling to weeks to get the original style battery to get above 6 volts!, I popped the stout Duralast battery in Dino and he fired right up yesterday. Runs really good except for that non-stop lifter tick.  As mentioned in the previous newsletter,  I have new lifters and pushrods...  hope to address sometime in the near future, but time has a way of flying buy with the multiple projects going on right now.  Anyway, look for more details and "out and about" pictures in a future newsletter. 

ps. Just to add I have been in contact with Jim's Battery, the new owner of Antique Auto Battery, and looks like they may honor the warranty from the the original owner on my $300+ battery!  More on that later, also!

Is it possible to reuse the case and have new internals fitted to your original style battery?

Kevin, maybe, but that battery is already on the way back to Antique Auto Battery/Jim's Battery Mfg. They indicated it had a 4 year warranty, and would stand behind the previous companies warranty, so after I did a series of tests, they gave me the green light to return it. About 20 minutes after getting the green light this morning, it was handed off to the Garner NC Post Office clerk and should reach them by March 14. They indicated they would do some testing, and guess after they see I wasn't Baha Racing or doing Bo & Luke Duke sky jumps with Dino and their battery, they should send a replacement. At least that is what I'm hoping for.

I did remind them in a cover letter that I have about 3800 contacts in the Cadillac World, Run the 1963/64 Cadillac Website and Chapter, and am a National Director on the Cadillac LaSalle Club Board and hoped I could continue to put the good word out for AAB/JB! 
I will let everyone know how this goes. 

Eeeeexcellent Smithers.....

One thing I noticed about AGM technology batteries is that if they get deeply discharged, they're toast after that. That is my experience with 2 different Optimas. When I had Bertha in the paint shop for however many months that took they left the key in ACC, not OFF. It drained the battery & although it could be recharged, it never held charge for very long after that. Similar thing happened with the Optima in my truck, A light got stuck on, drained the battery, and it never held a charge long after that. Now with the replacement Optimas, they never experienced a deep discharge & I got 10+ years out of them. I don't know if AGM is more susceptible to this issue than flooded batteries but I never experienced a flooded battery going belly up after a single deep discharge.

I've never had an issue with this AGM inside - Original case outside battery until this one. I bought it March 8, 2017 and reported it bad March 8, 2019 so it was exactly 2 years. Nothing was left on and went a couple weeks without the trickle/smart charge, and noticed it had crashed to about 2 volts.  Tried all sorts of things and could never get it to read more than 6 volts and then once charger was off, it would start quickly decharging ... down to less than 4 volts in about 10 minutes. The prior original style battery lasted about 8 years as I recall.  Fingers crossed a good replacement is returned. At least I have a nice stout 930 CA backup battery... even if the hold down hardware fits like crap when I try to install it!

Wow! You only got 2 years out of this one? It could be that they "don't make em like they used to".  I have a friend that worked an auto parts store. He told me that the Optimas used to be really good batteries but they aren't anymore. Maybe the same with your AGM.

I replaced a 25 year old Trane AC condensing unit at my home a few years back. It still worked but was getting really loud. I wanted to be proactive & replace it so it didn't die in the middle of Summer (remember how hot the 2018 Cadillac GN was? yeah, that). Anyway, long story short, The compressor in the NEW Trane condensing unit died in 2 years IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER! That'll teach me! Apparently now "You CAN stop a Trane" LOL

One of the things I had to do was take the caps off and turn upside down to make sure it was dry. When I did that I heard something rattling. Not being an expert on batteries or how AGM batteries are put together but I am thinking something may have come unsoldered?  I guess I need to consult my Buddy Mr. Google and see what the deal is with these batteries. Regardless the loud rattling sound inside didn't sound right!!   I really, really thought I would eat the cost, and was surprised when they said they would honor the previous owners warranty.   Not counting my chickens just yet, however, I have at least shipped the " rotten egg" back to the mother hen!

 Tony, I have 3 battery chargers, 2 25amp smart bench top and one large 70 amp floor charger, with AGM charging circuit, a stout jump charger, and of course jumper cables. I tried dozens of things over the last couple of weeks, including some things the "old man" at restoration battery had told me to do, back when I had replaced my other battery after 8 years. I'm not the type of person that would pop a single charger on the battery, give it a go, pull it out and call it a day! LOL I periodically also keep an old 12 volt car battery up on the work bench for testing parts and am periodically recharging it with any of my 3 chargers, so I know they work. All 3 give you a lot of information as they charge including and probably most importantly the amperage charging rate.  

Hmm, 55? I guess the car will be around long after you Jason. Btw, same in my case.

My daughter (now 15) already have plans for "her" car. I'm trying to tell her that she will have to pry the car out of my cold dead fingers, but of course she just laughs at it knowing how easy she will get it when she is old enough.

Please don't tell her I said this, I would like to keep the car as long as possible before she "steals" it one dark night. 

...and the house is 107 years old. It will also hopefully continue well into the future after I am gone!

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