Dino Waiting on Battery!

[Jason Edge]

This past Tuesday I realized I had not cranked Dino, my 64 CDV in a few weeks as I was away at the CLC Winter Board Meeting in Charlotte NC last week and have been busy with house addition and sorting latest cadmium batch, and checked the battery and it was down to 4.6 volts.  I had left the positive battery cable on the positive post, which I usually just disconnect if I know the car will not be cranked in a few days, so I checked voltage and it was down to 4.6 volts! While it will drop a bit over a few weeks if not cranked, it does not drop that much. I have an original Group 60 replica AGM battery, bought from the now defunct Restoration Battery, which you can see by Clicking Here, that I had last replaced in May 2017.  I have a large capacity stand up battery charger and tenderer with an AGM battery setting and connected everything and set it to AGM and it seemed to be charging normally. I walked out for about 30 minutes and came back in and the battery was smoking a bit from the top caps and seemed to be percolating a bit from inside and noticed the top was getting hot and had a weird electrical smell. And yes, I had the cables connected correctly.

I had previously ordered a new replacement battery from Jim's Battery Manufacturing, who I believe bought out Restoration Battery, back on July 5, 2022. I had contacted them once in Nov and said I should have by end of December.   So, I was thinking I am probably not going to be get an original type battery back in Dino any time soon, so I installed a very newer Group 27 battery I had just pulled from the latest parts car. This was a good reminder lesson as I can once again confirm that original hold down bar and hardware is almost useless with these newer batteries. The S shape of the bar makes it basically impossible to strap down where it will not slide around or more importantly, slide up against the positive battery terminal and post.

So, here is the good news... so far ...  I called  Jim's Battery and was ready to go into "full rant - give me a refund mode" but they said my battery had just shipped and gave me the UPS tracking #. It is supposed to arrive between 12 noon and 2 pm tomorrow.  So, in this instance the Cadillac Gods looked after me. My eggs have not hatched and am not counting the chickens yet, but hoping I receive a good, correct battery tomorrow. 

I will post an update.

Jason. 

ps. The beauty of the original spring ring clamps is they are a quick disconnect by grabbing and turning and pulling up vs the side bolt cables ... and of course much more elegant, practical and original than those expensive disconnects many people use.  

[john w. warner]

I go through at least 2-3 lead acid batteries a year for my vintage cars. I always keep an extra on a trickle.

[Jason Edge]

Battery from Battery Central Mall (aka Jim's Battery Manufacturing) arrived yesterday fully charged and is now installed in Dino. Dino is Happy.  This looks just like the one had before from Restoration Battery and am very pleased. I placed the order back on July 5, and was back ordered and am not sure if they still have such a long delay in getting batteries to customers. Again, this is an AGM battery in side an original replica battery casing.  Other than the fact it has original appearance and fits properly, you can actually use the battery hold-down hardware. Here are a couple of pictures:

 

[Doug Meloan]

The battery looks great Jason!  I appreciate knowing about Jim's Battery Manufacturing, as I need one for my '61!  I hope t see Dino some day, it looks amazing in the photos!! - Doug   

[C. Van Tune]

Jason, 

I've stopped using the replica batteries for that same reason.  Some of those are nothing more than motorcycle batteries put into a replica OEM case.

No wonder they can't hold voltage, or take a big charge, like a full size car battery can.  

[Jason Edge]

Van, this last battery lasted almost 5 years and never had a problem with it keeping a charge. In fact I'm not one to keep on a battery tenderer and typically just fire the car up ever 1 to 3 weeks. My prior reproduction Group 60 Original Style battery lasted about 7 years. Again no complaints. Back to this last battery, I think I might have something to do with the premature 5 year death from a few months ago when  I was installing new cadmium fasteners into the AC/Heat blower air box and screwed directly into the main battery to starter feed cable. Both that wire and the wire from the alternator to battery got so hot they melted before I could jump around and pulled the spring ring cable. The battery seemed hot but after it cooled down it fired right back up and have cranked several times in the intervening months. I had tentatively planned to write something up about it for a newsletter but other things got in the way. Point being, that was not a bad battery even without the shorting incident... it was still a good battery that looks right and fits rights and held a charge well until last week.

As far as the repro AGM battery specs it states 600 cranking amps or 530 cranking amps which should be more than adequate for our cars. I always thought motorcycles were rated about 150 to 300 cranking amps... but to be honest I don't  know a thing about motorcycles.