Dead battery or ???
#1
Dead battery or ???
Background:
A little background... I bought an '81 corvette about 1 year ago (couldn't find a nice enough '80 at the time) and drove it back from St Louis (~500 miles) without any problems. I drove it pretty regularly on the weekends without any problems all summer. Then I parked it in the garage for the winter.
Symptoms:
I went to get it out this spring only to find it won't start. Nothing comes on at all... not even the battery light. No cranking, nothing. I hook it up to a trickle charger (thinking dead battery) but the charger says the batter is full. So, I put a jumper on the batter and BOOM! It fires right up with no problem. I drive the car around and all is good. I turn it off and ... dead. Wont start without the jumper. So I thought maybe I need to get a "good" drive in to get a charge into the battery. Jumped it and drove it around for ~45 minutes. Wont start.
Question:
Could this be just a completely dead battery? Or, some suggest a ground cable is the culprit. What do you all think? I'm not ready to drop it off at the mechanics just yet.
Thanks!
bphein1980
A little background... I bought an '81 corvette about 1 year ago (couldn't find a nice enough '80 at the time) and drove it back from St Louis (~500 miles) without any problems. I drove it pretty regularly on the weekends without any problems all summer. Then I parked it in the garage for the winter.
Symptoms:
I went to get it out this spring only to find it won't start. Nothing comes on at all... not even the battery light. No cranking, nothing. I hook it up to a trickle charger (thinking dead battery) but the charger says the batter is full. So, I put a jumper on the batter and BOOM! It fires right up with no problem. I drive the car around and all is good. I turn it off and ... dead. Wont start without the jumper. So I thought maybe I need to get a "good" drive in to get a charge into the battery. Jumped it and drove it around for ~45 minutes. Wont start.
Question:
Could this be just a completely dead battery? Or, some suggest a ground cable is the culprit. What do you all think? I'm not ready to drop it off at the mechanics just yet.
Thanks!
bphein1980
#2
Make sure both cable connections to the battery terminals are tight and corrosion-free, Next check the ground cable to the chassis connection.
By the way, if you suspect that a battery is drained fully, use a charger, not a tender to bring it back to full charge.
You might also want to have the battery load-tested to see if it is in fact, good.
By the way, if you suspect that a battery is drained fully, use a charger, not a tender to bring it back to full charge.
You might also want to have the battery load-tested to see if it is in fact, good.
#3
Thanks for the reply Dave01. All the cables look corrision free with good connection. I cleaned them anyways and reconnected. I dont have a battery tester, so I will probably just pull the battery and take it down to my local mechanic for a quick test.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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