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  #1  
Old 11-01-12, 07:11
Ken Hughes's Avatar
Ken Hughes Ken Hughes is offline
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Hi Lauren,those optima batteries are good,we were restoring a 1936 Ford that had one fitted,and with sitting around for 6 months it still had plenty of cranking power.
The ford was in our workshop for 3 years and the battery was only recharged once during that time.
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Old 11-01-12, 18:24
Phil Waterman Phil Waterman is offline
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Default Question about the Optima Batteries

Hi All

Lauren your original question as spawned an interesting discussion.

What has been peoples experience with the Optima batteries concerning the following:

Post corrosion

Charging rates encountered on the CMPs with the High Amp charge rate regulators

Good high grade regular batteries seem to last 4-5 years in my trucks and then one day they just seem to stop holding a charge. Or their cranking voltage drops off steeply. One of the problems I have noticed on the last couple of batteries is that though they will crank the engine over for a long time they drop below about 4.5 volts very quickly like 20-60 seconds. This is a problem because below 4.5 v the ignition spark is pretty weak.

Cranking time to start is really important if the carb is dry and you have only a mechanical fuel pump.


Cheers Phil
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Last edited by Phil Waterman; 11-01-12 at 18:25. Reason: word smithing
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  #3  
Old 11-01-12, 20:21
paul Lincoln paul Lincoln is offline
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I would guess that we have had an Optima battery on one of our F30s for 5 years. It is still as good as new and there is no corrosion on the terminals. We use the quick release clamps so we can disconnect when we put it away for winter. My other three 12 cabs all have Optima batteries and so does my Jeep. I will be putting one on my next Jeep project too.
My supplier is not too far from you in Norfolk (UK).
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  #4  
Old 10-06-12, 17:48
Lauren Child Lauren Child is offline
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This week I finally got the weather and time to swap out the battery cables. It's made a *huge* difference. Starter now cranking 2-3 times faster. I used 70mm2 high-flexibility cable (very fine cores in the wire).
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Old 12-06-12, 08:48
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Ken Hughes Ken Hughes is offline
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I am glad we all could help.
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  #6  
Old 16-06-12, 17:04
Lauren Child Lauren Child is offline
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Can I check how folks are routing the cable down to the solenoid?

I've followed the routing of the old cable, across the clips by the twisty grease doodah, around the edge of the edge bay to the handbrake area and then down close to the doghouse spring clip immediately above the solenoid.

With a bit of wobbling the cable has moved close to the exhaust manifold (actually to the point of touching an old earth cable that was about to get very hot....) hence this is clearly not the best routing.

There's a smaller diameter cable loom running through some metal clips in the area that look battery cable sized - are these supposed to be for the battery cable?
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  #7  
Old 17-06-12, 03:14
Stew Robertson Stew Robertson is offline
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The battery cables run right along the frame, inside the frame

Stew
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  #8  
Old 19-06-12, 18:51
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Tony Wheeler Tony Wheeler is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lauren Child View Post
Can I check how folks are routing the cable down to the solenoid?
Hi Lauren,

As Stew says, the standard battery cable route to the solenoid is along the inside of the RH chassis rail, as in the pic below. However I notice in your first post you have an F22. I'm not familiar with the F22, but from your description it sounds like it has a battery box inside the cab, like the FGT. If that's the case, you may get some answers if you post this as a FGT question.

Cheers,
Tony
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