Blingo short range.

[chatwindows]

Oops. Just as well it was raining here today and I decided not to bother until Wednesday. What you say is correct for I now remember poking the meter wire into the back hole just before the spark and the meter expiring. Just goes to show, 'a little knowledge' and all that.
Thanks again, wish me luck.
chatwindows, John.

[Grumpy-b]

The meter has to go across from one fuse socket to the other Blockage (French term for a cut off) you are then getting the pack voltage from each end of the string. If the circuit is otherwise complete and you put a meter across where the fuse / block should be you will get full pack voltage. When you put a fuse in you always get a nice crack so I guess thats not good for a meter.

If the vehicle has been used for a long time and not watered, it can be dangerous to just do a maintenance charge.
I have just had a van that I dont believe has been serviced for some years, It has 2006 /7 battery packs and had a decent voltage as a precaution I watered it after I had charged it, and it took nearly 20litres. When I used it it had a very limited range, despite an initial decent voltage . I have taken this precaution on a number of occasions where the state of maintenance is unknown, its especially difficult to know the hrs if the controller has died, or been changed.
Thinking about this, if a lot of the plates are exposed then the amount of stored energy will be much less, but the voltage could still be OK. The voltage is a reflection of the physical state of the plate components , and the amount of stored energy is dependent on the area of the cells in use. Assuming no internal shorts are present.
If a pack is badly depleted like this one was, doing a Maint charge could cause bad damage to the cells, as a much higher voltage is applied to the cells at the final stages of the charge, they go up to 8v and do get hot. if plates get hot they do bend if they bend a lot they touch, if they touch they spark, if they spark they ignite the hydrogen, and hey presto you have an explosion if above the electrolyte level, or a burnt hole in the cell if below the electrolyte line and near the case.
By filling beforehand the worst that can happen is that the cells are over filled, and any excess will be expelled through the overflow pipe. The maint charge is followed by the watering as the internal components of the cells are supposed to absorb the electrolyte during charge, it will be expanded as well being hot, so topping up at that point means they will have the max amount they can possibly hold.
You should still do a water after doing a maint charge like this as its possible that not all of the string was overfilled.

Grumpy-b

[chatwindows]

Thanks Grumpy,
In the five years that I have owned my van I have seldom allowed it to go much more than 2,500 miles between watering. I have never seen the watering light, which I of course know about, illuminated. I thought that this was good housekeeping and as I only use it as my retirement folly vehicle for general running about, this has never caused me any anxiety. I have never heard any sign of an explosion so assume that if I have a leak, it may be an old wound or age fatigue.
On another subject, my transmission 'clunk' is still there and although I have learned to live with it and take up the drive gently, I saw a van on e-Bay without batteries and wondered!??? Problem is, it is in Devon and logistically it would be a problem to recover it to the island, even in its light state. I deduced that my clunk is in the final drive and wonder if it will get worse or if there is a workable cure, or at least examination, without removing the unit. Any thoughts would be welcome.
The sun is shining again so I may go underneath today. I may not also.
Kindest regards, chatwindows, John.

[harry morris]

Hello CHATWINDS, your doing well lad do not give up your your BLINGO there's not many of us left you know !!! my (shiny) red van is still going strong after three and a half years, one little thing I have noticed is the van likes a BALANCE CHARGE every now and then, I recently went out on a SUNDAY morning run following a balance charge to see what sort of mileage she would do with my (very light right foot) and got a staggering 62 miles before the charge light appeared at 20%, I should say here that I have NEVER pussyfooted with the batteries Ive never bothered about about driving carefully and always in the green zone and have given them a good thrashing 65 mph on the motorway on many occasions with no problems.
Now then I am intrigued at your little motorcycle scissor jack thing for lowering the batteries as I have another (shiny white) BLINGO with battery problems in the middle pack loosing coolant so i am very interested in this item you have invented sounds very useful, cheers and good luck, HARRY MORRIS

[Grumpy-b]

To get the packs out I use two decent trolley jacks and a pallet truck, lift the vehicle up and down with the jacks (Wheels off) and slide the battery packs in and out with the pallet truck, nice and safe and quick for the front and rear. I can get a pack out , rebuilt and back in in less than an hourand a half, including taking a cup of tea. Middle pack can take 3 to 5 hrs. Some of the antics peole have done scare me witless, the batteries are very heavy and I like to have a full compliment of body parts. But Im also lucky in having a access to a decent concrete surface to roll the pallet truck on.
Tip. Before you have to extract a pack, take each of the bolts out one at at time, copper slip them and replace. Its so good to just be able to take the pack out when you need to rather than fight the bolts as well. Its also worth making sure the m6 bolts holding the watering system and the cable tray are also nice and free. Especially the front pair of the cable tray (Middle of the van) as these are welded studs and a pain to replace with a bolt if you shear them off the floor pan.
Whe undoing the torx drives in the fuse/ blocks, make sure your Torx key is not worn, if it is at all rounded grind it off back to good material. These screws dont have a deep head and can be easilsy rounded out. The same goes for the battery bolts, I tend to tap them home before trying to turn them, many are already a bit rounded out.
Grumpy-b