Mopars, Drag Racing, Engine Building, etc…
Archive for February, 2008
Still No Go…
Feb 18th
I tried starting her up yesterday with the batteries fully charged, but was not successful. What is weird is that the charger is telling me that the batteries are fully charged, yet the built in indicator is showing red when it should be showing green. When I use a voltmeter to check the batteries they seem fine. Here is another video of me trying to start the car.
The reason the picture-in-picture video is shaking so much is that the tripod for the second camera was leaning against the car. Whoops.
Still Charging…
Feb 17th
My batteries are still charging. The built in indicators are showing red on both batteries, but the needle on the charger is showing at about 60%. I wonder if the batteries are near the end of their life. I took a picture of the lead plates inside the battery – maybe someone can tell me by looking at it. The label on the batteries say that at a 5 amp draw the battery will last 22 hours. I figure the reverse is also true – to charge it up to 100% from being nearly flat at 10 amps per hour would take 11 hours.
The charging setup.
The lead plates inside the battery.
New Battery Charger
Feb 16th
After the failed start up I decided that the culprit were the batteries. I took them out of the car and checked the built in indicators on them and one was showing red, and the other was showing black. The label on the batteries say that a fully charged battery will show a green indicator, 50% discharged will show black, and 100% discharged will show red. There were also some corrosion on the terminals that I have cleaned up. I bought a battery charger from AutoZone that will charge deep cycle batteries at 2 and 10 amps per hour (switchable). I am going to start charging one now, and then charge the other one overnight. Here are some pictures.
One of the two batteries – they are GNB (Exide?) Stowaway 800 CA Deep Cycle batteries.
Looking down at the indicator – you can see it is red.
The new battery charger.
Starting Her Up!
Feb 16th
I decided to give my loyal blog readers a treat today, and take a video of me starting up the Duster for the first time. But unfortunately two problems cropped up… the first problem is that I don’t have any loyal blog readers. Then the second problem is that the batteries on the Duster were flat. I promise to try again tomorrow! But until then, here is a video of the failed attempt.
MoPar Performance Books Are Here
Feb 15th
The MoPar Performance Books that I won on Ebay – Small Block ‘A’ Engines and the Chassis 9th Edition, have arrived today. I skimmed through the chassis book and it sure is chock full of useful information, and these books are definitely intended for the novice drag racer.
Last night I also won the die cast 1:18 scale replica of a 1971 Plymouth Duster! I have a spot on my desk at work reserved for it.
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