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Dead, really dead...


Guest Wayne in Malvern PA

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Guest Wayne in Malvern PA

My 1989 2.2 l TC has lapsed into a coma. Put her cover on in January when the weather turned lousy and put the battery on a minder for the duration, my usual winter protocol. Went out to start her in February and everything was dead, no lights, no clock, no crank and no start, not even a flicker from the hood light. Colder than blazes so decided to leave her until spring.

Forward to yesterday, tried again with the same results. Checked the battery, 12v across the poles, checked neg pole to positive clamp, 0v, checked pos pole to neg clamp, 0v. Hooked the battery up and the battery voltage dropped to 4v across the poles immediately. Searched the forum and found a couple notes about the hood light wire shorting to the hood frame so checked that, but all appeared OK so removed the bulb with no effect. I'm now worried I may have a dead short somewhere which will be hellacious to find.

Any ideas?

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My 1989 2.2 l TC has lapsed into a coma. Put her cover on in January when the weather turned lousy and put the battery on a minder for the duration, my usual winter protocol. Went out to start her in February and everything was dead, no lights, no clock, no crank and no start, not even a flicker from the hood light. Colder than blazes so decided to leave her until spring.

Forward to yesterday, tried again with the same results. Checked the battery, 12v across the poles, checked neg pole to positive clamp, 0v, checked pos pole to neg clamp, 0v. Hooked the battery up and the battery voltage dropped to 4v across the poles immediately. Searched the forum and found a couple notes about the hood light wire shorting to the hood frame so checked that, but all appeared OK so removed the bulb with no effect. I'm now worried I may have a dead short somewhere which will be hellacious to find.

Any ideas?

If I may? You say that you see 12V at the battery with both + and - cables disconnected from battery terminals, but when you connect these cables to the battery terminals the voltage drops to 4V.

At the time you connect the last (-) cable, do you get a sizable spark? If not, there is no short circuit as I would consider it.

Try another, known good, battery.

If you don't have one available, try jumping the battery from another vehicle with a 12V battery. (You need to have a good quality, heavy duty jumper cable set) When you do this, YOU WANT THE DONOR VEHICLE TURNED OFF (NOT RUNNING) If you don't get a large spark when you connect the final cable, then try starting your TC. STILL WITH THE DONOR VEHICLE NOT RUNNING!

If this works for you, I would have to think that the battery in your TC is defective, (DEAD)

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Guest BobFitz

Any battery will self discharge at the rate of 5% /month. Yours was left totally discharged for many months which will permanently damage the battery( more than 50% discharge).

You have a bad battery. Just replace it- charging will not help.

Living aboard a sailboat running on 12v taught me a whole lot about batteries!

Bob

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My 1989 2.2 l TC has lapsed into a coma. Put her cover on in January when the weather turned lousy and put the battery on a minder for the duration, my usual winter protocol. Went out to start her in February and everything was dead, no lights, no clock, no crank and no start, not even a flicker from the hood light. Colder than blazes so decided to leave her until spring.

Forward to yesterday, tried again with the same results. Checked the battery, 12v across the poles, checked neg pole to positive clamp, 0v, checked pos pole to neg clamp, 0v. Hooked the battery up and the battery voltage dropped to 4v across the poles immediately. Searched the forum and found a couple notes about the hood light wire shorting to the hood frame so checked that, but all appeared OK so removed the bulb with no effect. I'm now worried I may have a dead short somewhere which will be hellacious to find.

Any ideas?

Colder than blazes in PA with a dead battery and it sounds like your battery minder, I'm thinking it was a float charger, didn't do it's job. Something about the lead acid battery that people forget, is that a battery low on charge will freeze in the winter and when frozen it's flat dead and a frozen flat dead battery will short the plates, bulge and sometimes even bust the case. When this happens, come spring 12v on a meter means nothing, if your casing is even slightly bowed; kiss that battery goodby.

Edited by Digger914 (see edit history)
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Guest Wayne in Malvern PA

Thanks very much guys, I like the sound of it being a bad battery rather than a dead short somewhere. Just tried reconnecting and got no spark when touching the final connection. Still got the voltage drop across the battery poles. Will try the jumpers next.

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Guest Wayne in Malvern PA

Back from the dead...

Hooked the leads from my jumper to the battery cables disconnected from the existing battery, everything came on. Tried to start her and she started up like her old self. Off to get a new battery.

Thanks very much for the assistance folks, much better to be buying a new battery than chasing down a short.

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Guest Wayne in Malvern PA

Final report: new battery obtained and in place, everything came on with hookup, started, and went for a drive "out the bypass." Ran beautifully like she always does. Stopped to fill the tank and a young man came over and asked, "Is that one of the Maserati ones?" Turned out his older brother was somewhat of a LeBaron connoisseur and had told him about the elusive TC, but he had never seen one.

All's right with the world again.

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Final report: new battery obtained and in place, everything came on with hookup, started, and went for a drive "out the bypass." Ran beautifully like she always does. Stopped to fill the tank and a young man came over and asked, "Is that one of the Maserati ones?" Turned out his older brother was somewhat of a LeBaron connoisseur and had told him about the elusive TC, but he had never seen one.

All's right with the world again.

Happy Days Are Here Again, enjoy tour TC. Take a drive to Reno Nevada for the 2015 TC America Convention May 17 to 20.

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Final report: new battery obtained and in place, everything came on with hookup, started, and went for a drive "out the bypass." Ran beautifully like she always does. Stopped to fill the tank and a young man came over and asked, "Is that one of the Maserati ones?" Turned out his older brother was somewhat of a LeBaron connoisseur and had told him about the elusive TC, but he had never seen one.

All's right with the world again.

Elusive is the word. In 20+ years I'd only ever seen one in the wild, even the one I now own and drive was bought from pictures, didn't actually see it until it was delivered.

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