I put a new battery in my pickup. It came charged and the truck started right up when I put it in. I noticed that the amp meter was running a little high on the charge side when I first drove it around but I figured it was because it was new and had been sitting on the shelf for some months.

I don't drive the truck a lot so it has sat for a week since I put the battery in. Today when I went to start it it would barely turn over, certainly not enough to start it. I jumped it and it still wouldn't turn over well. I let the running vehicle run for about 5 minutes and finally it turned over just enough to start, but just barely. I took it for a drive and the amp meter stayed pegged at about 15-20 amps and never came down. When I parked it it was still at 15 amps. After I shut it down, it started right up again and was right back up to 20 amps charge.

With my previous battery it occassionally ran at about 10 amps charge after I had to crank it a fair amount after it had sat for quite a while but the amps always came back down after it ran for a few minutes.

Is this a sign that the battery I got isn't any good?

Is this a sign that the battery I got isn't any good?
Or not fully charged. Put it on a battery charger overnight to fully charge it. If the amps are still high, after a few miles, the battery might be bad. Make sure the truck doesn't have a electrical drain, draining the battery while its parked. Disconnect the battery for a few days, or a week, reconnect and try starting. If the battery's dead or near dead, thats a sure sign of a bad battery.

I know no one does it BUT.... batterys are suposed to be charged before use !! off the shelf it has nothing more the the chemical charge that happened when it was filled...what I was told many years ago by a battery Rep for Interstate was that a battery is never any better then it first charge..in other words charge it before using it !! you can get a hydrometer & check the gravity of each cell to see it you have a problem or use a load meter ... one of the easiest things to do tho is look on the case of the battery it will be branded with the orginal build date ... will tell how long its been on the shelf :eek:

I know no one does it BUT.... batterys are suposed to be charged before use !! off the shelf it has nothing more the the chemical charge that happened when it was filled...what I was told many years ago by a battery Rep for Interstate was that a battery is never any better then it first charge..in other words charge it before using it !! you can get a hydrometer & check the gravity of each cell to see it you have a problem or use a load meter ... one of the easiest things to do tho is look on the case of the battery it will be branded with the orginal build date ... will tell how long its been on the shelf :eek:

I bought it in June, it said it was built in January. The store rep told me they are occassionally put on trickle chargers to keep them fresh. It was putting out 12.5 volts but I don't know if that really indicates it was fully charged. I ordered a battery charger the other day which I'll throw on the battery as soon as it arrives and before I attempt to start it again. When I first dropped it in the truck it fired right up with plenty of amps for the cranking.

My old battery was just shy of 10 years old according to the warranty sticker! In other words, I'm pretty sure my starting, charging and general electrical systems are in good working order for it to have lasted that long. I see no drain on the battery with the ignition off. I should probably check the starter for amps used during cranking. Given the compression and timing settings and it's proximity to the exhaust pipe it gets a pretty hard work out, especially when starting while hot. Not that it generally has to crank for very long, just that it works hard. When it craps out I'll probably install a mini starter to gain more exhaust clearance and to have more starting torque.

I charged it overnight last night and it had plenty of power to start the truck. The amps after the start were around 5 charging and since I had to crank it a little that's typical. Now we'll see if it can hold a charge.

Well, now the amps while running are up again and rising the longer the truck is running. Something is amiss.

Rich .... I'd check it out with a Hydrometer .. sounds like you've got a shorted cell in that battery ..just a guess over the computer ;)

It sounds like a weak battery.

IF it were me, I would disconnect at least one battery cable, fully charge the battery, wait 24 hours for the surface charge to bleed off and test it with a fast rate discharge meter.

You state your volt meter showed 12.5V, that is not even close to a full charge. A full charge should be 13.7V and while driving voltmeter should read between 13 and 14.7V. Have the store you bought it from bring the battery to full charge and test it. Good luck Jon

Deans way will work fine if you have the time.... checking the gravity in each cell will tell you in 5 minutes if you need to replace the battery ....... I guess I'm a product of a got to know now generation ...

All I have available to me at the moment is a trickle charger. I left it on the battery for 24 hours and it fired right up with plenty of cranking power. As I drove the truck the charging amps continually climbed.

It's a sealed battery so I'm not sure I can check it with a hydrometer. Regardless, I'm taking it back to the parts store tonight and see what they have to say. It's been nothing but trouble since I bought it and even if I had a slow drain on the battery it should still be able to be charged up and not force the charging system to kick into high gear everytime the engine is started. Even with a weak battery, I've never been in a situation in which the amps charging didn't go down relatively quickly while driving the vehicle. Nothing else in the electrical system has been changed recently except the battery and things were working fine with the old battery until it croaked and as I said, it gave me nearly 10 years of service so I don't think my electrical system caused it to die.

One disturbing thing I noticed last night as I drove the truck to my storage building to put it away for the night is that with the headlights on and the thing idling, the amps went to a slight discharge state! Blipping the throttle bounced the needle back into charge range but I've never seen a discharge state while idling in the past. I would think the alternator (which isn't all that old itself, neither is the voltage regulator) would provide a positive charge even at idle if the battery were holding up it's end of the bargain.

Yeah that's the problem with the old reliable specific gravity test, most modern batteries don't have removable cell caps anymore.

I can't see the battery being the cause of a "slight discharge" on the amp meter though. Seems to me that would only indicate the load is greater than the alternator output rate.

The parts store exchanged the battery for me. Problem solved. After starting it runs about 10 amps charging and within about 5 minutes it's back down to a typical 2-3 amps charging.

:thumbsup: