My original AC Delco Freedom II battery is a bit sulfated, the sight glass reads green, full charge, but I only have 8 volts. Is there anyway to un-sulfate a battery? At least so it holds a full charge for a few days?
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Re: 1982 Battery
John,
Restoration Battery at 1 513 451-1038 sells a battery-minder that has a button for de-sulfation. It also keeps your battery at full charge all of the time.
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Re: 1982 Battery
The Delco 'Eye' only looks at one cell in the battery. The presumption is other cells will be in equivalent condition; this isn't always true....
It's possible for one (or more) cells to be defective and still give you a 'green eye'. Typically, when you see abnormally low voltage readings like you report across the battery after attempting a re-charge, it's time to say bye bye and replace the battery....
As these were sealed units, there's no easy way to access the individual cells and inject an anti-sulfation additive and/or replace escaped water. Plus, once a battery is as low as the reading you indicate, it's my opinion that the use of rejuvenating additives is rather futile.
The early era shop/maintenance manuals did outline a technique for attempting to recover degraded batteries.... It was a 'shock' method of charging intended to spall sulfite coating off cell plate surfaces. I've found it to be marginally effective IF sulfation has progressed to a MINOR level.
Essentially, you use a battery charger with LARGE current capacity setting (e.g. 'boost' mode). You connect the charger to the battery, and 'pulse' it, going from an off condition to a high current charge state in 5-10 minute duty cycles (same on time as off time) for 5-10 attempts, then you put the charger in normal, slow, charge mode and let 'er charge for a day to see if you had sucess.
But, if the reason your battery is low and won't take a charge is something other than very minor sulfation, this won't give you relief.... Reasons for no sucess include:
(1) Very HEAVY sulfation.
(2) One, or more, cells who've lost significant electrolyte.
(3) One, or more, cells who've developed salt deposits SO deep at the bottom of the cell that they're effectively 'shorting' that cell's plate pack at the bottom.Comment
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Re: 1982 Battery
The shcck method will work as Jack suggested, but I would remove the battery from the car before I tried this. If the battery has a shorted cell, it could cause it to explode. Use caution and protective eye goggles when doing battery serviceDick WhittingtonComment
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Nice add-on, Thanks, Dick! *NM*
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