anybody know how to resurrect a dead motor cycle. apparent it sat
around too long. Voltage is about 8 volts open circuit. Won't take a
charge. Is it just trash?

Paul Lamar

I've been told to clamp it in a paint shaker for a few minutes. This
is supposed to break up the sulfate crystals....

JimR

That interesting.  Thanks. I'll give it a try.

BTW I have not been running the RV4 lately so that scared me and I
took the batteries out to trickle charge them. They both appear to be
still OK.

Paul Lamar

I used to sell used industrial-sized uninterruptible power supplies, and I got reasonably good at resurrecting expensive lead acid batteries over the years.  I use the same setup I use for repairing electronics, taught to me by a friend who grew up repairing televisions and radios in his uncle's repair shop.

To get the battery charging, you generally need decent voltage, ideally several thousand volts.  I've never had an industrial pulse power charger, so instead I took a cheap extension cord and installed a big ceramic diode in one leg, along with two alligator clips.  I connect the alligator clips to the battery, giving it rectified pulses off the wall outlet.  The power goes through the battery into an old lamp with an incandescent light bulb.  The bulb will glow when the battery begins to charge, usually after several hours, and you can switch to a bigger bulb if you're charging a bigger battery.  As an added benefit the bulb will limit the current, preventing your battery from blowing up.

I've used this arrangement for resurrecting very small to very large batteries, including car batteries and electric forklift batteries, and the ones I kept have lasted for years afterward.

Dave Klingler

Can I ship you a couple of dead batteries?

Paul Lamar

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