Trojan case getting lumpy

[DanG]

So I'm down here in beautiful Missouri and pulling routine maintanence on my G'Uncles Harley-Davidson gold cart, nice vehicle for him to get about his farm and visit neighbors. Neat to see a gent in his 80's riding a Harley anyhow!

- he put trojan batteries in a bunch of years back (10?) and now the case top (+) terminal areas are swollen up. Out of 6 batteries 5 have a definate hump forming - some getting nearly 1/4 inch above the (-) terminal level. They take a 30amp charge down to 4amp float w/ no flat cells, all bubble nicely and no corrosion or defect on cabling.

My guess is internally the plates are still attached and it's just cosmetic, with the plastic case moving around. Maybe there was a bad interaction with the el-cheapo aerosal terminal protecterant he applied on day-one, I don't know.

Has anyone seen Trojan "Mileage Master" batteries cases deform before? Is there any chance of batteries going ka-blooey from internal flaw? I'd like to have a better idea before I wander back home if there may be problems building up...

Many thanks...

[wpowokal]

99Y In my experience this problem is caused by leaking seals around the positive terminal.

This allows concentrated acid to collect between the inner and outer seals causing the terminal post to becoming spongy and growing.

As the terminal is raising up it can and will also grow down, possibly to the point of touching the tops of plates causing a short.

Finally it will simply break off, this usually occures before any shorting.

They are past their use by date.

Page 12 of this artical briefly refers to positive plate growth with aging.

http://www.sonnenschein.org/PDF%20files/GelHandbookPart1.pdf

[mongolei]

minii bodoj bgaagaar end orj bgaa xumuus nileeeen...

[Victor]

This is pretty common with batteries near the end of their life. I wouldn't worry about it.

Victor

[MelTx]

 Well looks like poor mongolie has finaly gone over the edge , must have smoked some batters fluid.I would like to announce the "mongolie rehab fund".Please send your generious donations to me and I will forward it to him.Suggested amount for this beloved commrad is $200.00 USD.Thank you for your support.

[DanG]

I thank you for the responses.

Looks like a new set of batteries are in his near future, glad to hear no imminent danger of eruption or meltdown.

Back to minnesota mananna,  thanks again....

[pyrocasto]

"This is pretty common with batteries near the end of their life. I wouldn't worry about it."

Well there's something to worry about. "My batteries are going to die!" :-)

[richhagen]

Another thing that can cause this, although I doubt it's the case with your batteries, would be freezing.  This usually occurrs with dead batteries, because they have less acid in the electrolyte and therefore freeze at a higher temperature.  This often splits the case open too.  Rich

[nothing to lose]

Reguardless of what is causing it, it seems common perhaps with Trojans?

I have 6 L16P 6 volts 360amphrs each. Also 4 just a bit smaller. All 10 of those batteries have the raised pos post hump in the plastic. I got those from a scarp yard and 6 have been very good after pusle charging alot to bring them back. 4 still never came back to life yet but still working on them at times.

As long as they work ok I would not give up on them as yet, but I might consider the need for new ones in the future just in case.

I had those working 6 in the back of a pickup truck and was charging at home then dumping to another bank at a different house where I could not put up a mill. Also was charging from the truck while driving etc..

All that bouncing on dirt roads, some deep discharges, fast charging etc.. I am not surprised I had 2 of them go dead on me. They were dragged out of the trash when I got them anyhow. And when those 2 died it was when I droe about 300 miles charging one day, so I might have just burned those 2 out??

So I geuss it may not be good or right that the post has the plastic hump in the case, but my exerience so far is they still work great for a long time anyway and that hump does not particuly matter unless something else is wrong.

[Bruce S]

99y;

   A little off subject, but what part of Missouri? That's no small drive.

Bruce S