So I bought a battery tender......

[OutThere]

Hooked it up and allowed it to charge overnight. Came down this AM, the little light was on Green and all looked good. I unhooked the tender, hooked the terminal back up, tightened the bolt and... nothing. Not even the hint of any power anyplace.

Help!

When I reconnected the positive terminal there was a spark and I heard power go on. It was nothing fantastic or anything.

Did I short something out? Did a fuse trip or something? I don't even know where to look.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[GR8_ASP]

The spark is normal. Happens every time I have disconnected the cables. However, I do not normally disconnect the cables when charging. I have the battery tender connected all the time and only have to plug it in. Can't explain no power at all unless it is with the connection. There is no overall fuse that could do that. I would recheck the connection and try again.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Maybe I'm reading this the wrong way...but it seems to me that disconnecting the cables would disconnect the the battery from the charger...don't know the "tender" brand, I HAVE HAD a couple of "green light" circumstances with one (of 7) Deltran's that I use onupon hookup to a battery that I KNEW was low on charge, and after reclamping the terminals, got the red charge light...and obtained a normal full charge on the battery.

 

[OutThere]

I should have mentioned that I am not accessing the battery directly, I charged via the terminal in front of the car.

 

[46hemi]

Not sure how dead your battery was when you started but if you have a Deltran unit and the battery was fairly weak then it should have been a lot longer than overnight for the green indication. Was the battery completely dead when you hooked it up? Also, how old is the battery?

 

[OutThere]

The battery was not very bad, everything worked just the car would not turn over. Now, nothing works and there isn't any sign of power at all.

It's isn't the battery that is making the car suddenly competely dead. Something happened when I was finished charging with the tender. Like I said, there was a small spark when I put the positive terminal back on the aux terminal in the front of the car (not the battery itself), and now when I unhook the same terminal nothing happens at all. The power in the car is completely turned off.

 

[RT/ED]

I recently purchased the battery tender. I was not able to get a good ground using the spring clamp harness provided when connecting to the jump points under the hood. I removed one of the two bolts holding down the hood roller guide on the frame beneath the positive connection. I sanded the paint away from around the bolt area and wire brushed the bolt. I reassembled using the direct mount cable provided with the battery tender applying dilectric grease to ensure a good non-corrosive contact on both the positive and negative leads. A also used a small self adhesive wire harness to hold the hookup wire in place when not in use. It took almost 24 hours to obtain a full charge on a partially weak battery. Good connections are a must for charging the battery!

 

[DEVILDOG]

Sounds to me like you have a dead battery. I recently used my Deltran on my wife's Q45 when her car would not start, had it hooked up over night, had solid green light in A.M. and car would not start...battery dead. You probably need a new battery. As far as a negative ground hookup discussed above just use the correct negative ground directly below the aux positive terminal. It is at the side sill with a ground wire attached.

 

[GG]

You can also use the cigarette lighter adapter which eliminates having to open/close the hood. Works fine on my 94 however may not work on newer cars if the lighter isn't hot all the time.

 

[OutThere]

I can't see how the battery is suddenly dead. It went from being just not charged enought to start the car, but everything else worked, to stoned dead in a weekk and inbetween it was charged by a battery tender?

Does anyone know what may have tripped during this process?

 

[Jack B]

I don't understand why you had the cable disconnected. It sounds like you had a poor connection. The green light indicates a lower float voltage (it won't move off of green if you have a bad connection) and the red is a higher rate of charge when the battery voltage is down. The spark is nothing more than the capacitors in the power supply either charging or discharging.

There is nothing in the circuit that could have opened. It sounds like the battery did not charge. The capability of a battery to take a charge. has very little to do with age. If you discharge a battery several times down to 70% of nominal voltage you better start looking for a new battery. On the other hand, in a cool climate and no deep discharges, the battery could last 5-7 years. Put a voltmeter on the the positive terminal and a ground and check the voltage.