About a week ago I picked up this here battery tester. Well dumb me here, not quite sure how to use it. It doesn't seem to open up far enough to go from post to post? Hopefully a picture shows up?
The battery posts on my 1956 Cadillac are very close together on one end of a 20 inch long battery. Maybe that was a typical design of batteries prior to the mid 1950s? That tester would easily contact both posts.
You'll probably have to use a jumper on modern batteries.
1950 Chevrolet 3100 (Ol' Roy)
1939 Packard Standard Eight Coupe (The Phantom) | 1956 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (The Bismarck) | 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 coupe |1966 Ford Mustang (Little Red) | 1969 Pontiac GTO (The Dishpit) I 1979 Ford F-100 | 1976 Ford F-150 (Big Red) | 1995 Ford F-150 (Newt)
Those were used to check each cell on older batteries that had tar over the tops. Notice that the gauge range only goes up to 2 V, which is the nominal voltage of a single lead-acid cell. The points would jab thru the tar and contact the lead connectors underneath. Not usable on newer batteries with plastic tops unless you destroy the plastic covering. The tar would heal back over the lead where the holes were made.
Kevin 1951 Chevy 3100 work truck Follow this saga in Project Journal Photos 1929 Ford pickup restored from the ground up. | 1929 Ford Special Coupe (First car) Busting rust since the mid-60's If you're smart enough to take it apart, you darn well better be smart enough to put it back together.
That tool was designed to SELL batteries, not test them. Show a customer a very low voltage reading on a low or discharged battery, then sell him a new one. Then recharge the trade-in (all it needed anyway) and sell it as a "rebuilt" battery at half the price of a new one! In the days of 6 volt batteries that ran low frequently because of poor charging system operation, it was a very common practice among unscrupulous retailers! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I still have one of those somewhere. It is probably about 70 years old. It load tests each cell individually back when the straps between cells were exposed. During the 1970's the straps between cells were no longer exposed. Probably in the mid 1970's I purchased a carbon pile load tester put the entire battery under load to test. Several years ago I purchased a very expensive battery diagnostic system. I am disappointed in the tester. I still prefer to use the carbon pile load tester on group 31 batteries. And the carbon pile tester uses the same principle as the load tester show. I used the cell tester like the one shown 70 years ago. And it would still trust it to load test a cell.
