Battery woes.....

Went out to fire up the Mav, and it was, as Jerry Clower would say, grave yard dead! I put a charger on it, on start, and it wouldn't even do that. The charger went into a series of fits, and finally got it to start. This is an AutoZone battery, so I went there, and told them to warranty the battery. They did, with no problem. I stepped up to their best battery, and got their gold series, 800 cold cranking amps, 1000 cranking amps. I have been fighting this for some time, and thought I had a drain on the system, but found that the cells in the battery were bad from the start. Hope this one holds up better. From what I can tell, the AutoZone batteries are not the best. But, they did warranty it quickly and easily, and gave me no problems. Plus, the cost was reasonable. One other thing, the car ran better, and the volt meter stayed steady, at about 14.2v, even with the engine at an idle.

 

funny how they seem to run better when the battery is good. batterys out here only last a couple of years because of the heat. the best may only be 3-4 yrs and thats an 7 yr. battery.

 

Yeah Don, seems like the battery might take down the electrical system, even after it is started, especially with shorted cells. Jerry, see you Saturday!

 

Ok, who is Jerry Clower?

 

I have one word to say... Motorcraft.

 

Hi, Sam! Long time no see! Yeah, I know, the AutoZone thing is something I did when I was much younger, about 4 yrs ago. I figured I would push this warranty thing, and see what I could get from it. Turns out they did pretty good. When this one dies, then I get a MotorCraft or Optima or something better. Barry......you don't know who Jerry Clower is? You must be from the Nawth! He was a southern humorist, very funny and very decent. Take care,

Earl

 

Barry; just found this: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/clower_jerry/ It will tell you all about Jerry Clower. Just for some info.
Take care.

 

aaaaah Son..... you do not know who Jerry is My dad (me sounding like someone else ) was from the hills of KY and I listened to Jerry on cassette many days riding in that ole f-100

 

Hey, I'm from New York, and I remember him being on Hee-Haw every now and then. He also appeared on the Muppets show once or twice. Plus, in the early 70's up here we used to listen to the Radio Comedy Hours, and he was featured quite bit. Very funny & very clean. Definitely one of a kind.

 

I've been using Auto Zone batteries with very good results. It's always good to deal with a chain that if there is a problem, you know that there will not be any hassles about getting it taken care of.

How was the battery stored all winter? How old was it to begin with? Another thing to consider is that if the car has a stock alternator, they only put out 12-15 amps at idle and max at 60. With the limited output on our cars, it is more important to keep track of the battery on a continual basis and make sure that your charging system is up to par. That's the best way to help avoid problems like this. Obviously, if the battery goes south due to a defect, there's not much that can be done about it other than replace it.

 

Wes; the guy at AZ was very helpfull with the battery, and the girl that researched the warranty was very good also. The guy said the battery had a sulfated and shorted cell, and was probably bad from the start, and just got worse to the point of failure. I have no problem with it, and now have a good battery at a good price. I may have other problems with AZ, but not this one. He also checked out the alternator and charging system, and it was fine. BTW, where have you been?

 

Wally World is good about their battery warrantys too. I bought a brand new Ever Start battery the day Terry dropped my '74 Grabber off in my driveway in March '05. For several weeks before I wrecked the car I would have to put a charger on it on really cold mornings to get it to crank, battery was getting weak. After I wrecked the car and got my '72 running I took the battery back to Wally Mart and they exchanged it for a much better battery for no charge. So far so good with this battery. The Ever Start batterys don't last long, but as long as I can keep exchangeing them I'm good.

 

Jerry was the mouth of the south. I was a dedicated hee haw viewer,, the chicks were awesome. RIP Buck Owens,, one of the leaders of the electric guitar,, who along with Don Rich, created some of the most creative harmonies and guitar riffs from anyone anywhere in music.
Dan

 

I've had my EverStart goin' on 4 years.....

 

oh yeah,, I hate walmart.
Dan