Left key in "on" position overnight - no start now

[RedRider]

Hi all,

After all my work trying to start the engine eariler this week, I pulled a bonehead move and left the key in the "on" position overnight.

Came the next morning, tried to start it again and of course nothing; no lights, no clicking, nothing. Put it on the charger overnight, STILL nothing.

Where should I start?

I was always told that leaving the ignition "on" will burn up the points, but it's has an HEI distributor. The battery is brand new and the starter functioned prior to my blunder. Any thoughts? 70 C-10 BTW

[mongocanfly]

I'm no help here but along time ago my sister left the key on in my dads truck and it burnt up everything in the distibutor...it was points type though..are you sure the batteries hot?

[RedRider]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

I'm no help here but along time ago my sister left the key on in my dads truck and it burnt up everything in the distibutor...it was points type though..are you sure the batteries hot?

The battery has been on the charger all day, but the green light on the charger hasn't clicked on...still says "charging". Maybe I fried the battery and it won't take a charge anymore.

[twcoley]

It sounds like the battery fully discharged and ruined the plates. I would suggest installing a new battery and test

[lsversaw]

You could also try putting another 12 volt battery in parallel with your fully discharged battery during charging. In other words, connect the 2 batteries positive-to-positive and negative-to-negative. With some batteries, and some chargers, you have to "fool" the charger into thinking it's connected to a good battery in order to make it charge.

Set the charger on the lowest charge rate available. Check the voltage on the discharged battery, while disconnected from the charger, often. If the voltage on the (disconnected) battery rises by a couple of volts, then it's taking a charge and you should try charging it by itself again.

Hopefully you don't have to buy another new battery.

Let us know how it goes.

[RedRider]

Originally Posted by lsversaw

...you have to "fool" the charger into thinking it's connected to a good battery in order to make it charge.

Yes! This applies to the newer microprocessor controlled battery chargers; it took me a bit to figure this out. What I did to "fool" it is hook the ends to a voltmeter and switch the voltmeter to read resistance (ohms). That clicked it over to active charge mode. Then, I tried to charge the battery again, but still no luck. So back to a Walmart to return the battery I bought 6 days ago. Stay tuned....

[wilkin250r]

Your battery charger will not charge a completely dead battery. There has to be some juice, or the charger won't click into charging mode and start pushing power.

If you have a spare battery, you can hook them in parallel.

You can use another vehicle's charging system to put an initial charge on the battery. Basically, you hook up jumper cables exactly the same way as you would if you're jump-starting your dead battery, but you don't try to start it. You keep the engine running on the good car, leave the cables connected, and go have a cup of coffee. Just be sure the other car doesn't overheat sitting there idling.

Or, they're still available, you buy yourself an old-school "dumb" charger. They don't have all that fancy circuitry. They just push power out. However, it IS possible to over-charge your battery with this type of charger, so you need to monitor your charging time and disconnect when appropriate.

[RedRider]

Originally Posted by wilkin250r

Your battery charger will not charge a completely dead battery. There has to be some juice, or the charger won't click into charging mode and start pushing power.

I did not know that, would've saved me some troubleshooting. I had a suspicison that the battery was toast though. Although it was a Walmart battery, it was brand new. Sure enough though, I got a replacement and it fired right up! Lot's of lessons learned.

[vince1]

A fully charged battery should be 12.6 volts across the terminals. Cables clean?

[homemade87]

Originally Posted by RedRider

I did not know that, would've saved me some troubleshooting. I had a suspicison that the battery was toast though. Although it was a Walmart battery, it was brand new. Sure enough though, I got a replacement and it fired right up! Lot's of lessons learned.

Just so you know in the future . Your charger is not completely useless in that situation . As stated the new chargers has to see a certain amount of voltage before it clicks on or it thinks it is hooked to a bad battery . What you can do is hook a good battery with jumper cables to the low battery . Then hook the battery charger up also . This will fool the charger into thinking it is hooked to a battery that just need charging . Leave it on for a while so the low battery can build some charge . Once the battery has come voltage in it you can remove the jumper cables and charge it the rest of the way on its own .

[RedRider]

Originally Posted by homemade87

Just so you know in the future . Your charger is not completely useless in that situation . As stated the new chargers has to see a certain amount of voltage before it clicks on or it thinks it is hooked to a bad battery . What you can do is hook a good battery with jumper cables to the low battery . Then hook the battery charger up also . This will fool the charger into thinking it is hooked to a battery that just need charging . Leave it on for a while so the low battery can build some charge . Once the battery has come voltage in it you can remove the jumper cables and charge it the rest of the way on its own .

My workaround was to hook the charger ends to a voltmeter that was in the ohm resistance setting. This triggered it on, then I put it on the battery. I have NO idea the underlying mechanics behind this though, all I know is that it worked.

[WorkinLonghorn]

Some of the cheaper high-energy distribs will fry if you leave the key on. This happened to me with a Skip White unit. Cost me $50 to replace it( the whole distributor because the cap and rotor were also melted in addition to the electronics), but actually I guess that is cheaper than a new battery. Fried a pertronix conversion once too that way. Lesson learned though AGAIN.
Glad you got it going.