Hey everyone, new here, I look forward to sticking around for a while and get to know you guys

recently I have acquired an Austin princess 2200, it has been sat in a garage for 4 years, it hadn't been started. I have manage to have it running for a bit but then it broke down on me and would start again, it was as if starting it drained the battery and now it wont start again, it start with a jump from another car, when I try and start it without a jump it just makes a ticking sort of noise

what would you guys recommend?

Cheers

The battery if four years old is junk especially if it just sat around. It may be older than that and you have to start there or constantly jump and leave attached while you fix things up and test stuff out. If you are ready to use the car soon just start with a new battery,

T
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Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest, Boston

sorry forgot to mention, 1st thing i did to it was put a new battery in, thats when i got it running

Charge the battery separtly from the vehicle's charging system. This is a test of the new battery, the charging system and a possible drain..... if it starts again fine check the output voltage off should be 12.2 or a bit more if it's just been running and about 14 when running. Over 15V running is a problem.

Now turn on all lights, blowers radio or whatever and look at voltage with a raised idle -- it will drop some -- perhaps to 13.5V (these #'s just out of my hard drive) and if a generator not an alternator it may need more RPMs for full output. Alts put out close to max amps at about 1,800 RPM and up. A low battery will limit an alternator's output but not the generator.

Ok, If that all checks out now check for a drain. Put a test light between battery neg and ground with cable off battery and it should be out with everything off that uses any electricity in the car but a clock wouldn't matter.

If it lights up get ready for the big hunt for the drain. Pull fuses one at a time till that test light goes out and note that circuit as that's the circuit with the drain and we go on from there when you can say what it covers if that happens,

T

I'm shere a lot so hit back and I should catch the post pretty fast,
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Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest, Boston

ok thanks i will try that at the weekend

one thing, i perchased a battery charger at the weekend, pluged it all in and the light indicator on the charger told me it was flat, after leaving it in for a while it went up to 20% full, after this i left it on charge for a couple of days and it staid on 20%, i woke up this morning and checked it and now it has gone down to low again

is the a problem with my battery or the charager?

also i just wanted to check, by jump starting the car will it charge the battery?

thanks for all your help

Blut

It's probably the battery. No matter when you bought the battery it may have been an old battery or mishandled which puts the blame on the battery. Try putting the charger on another known good battery and it will probably show "full charge" in a couple minutes.

Look on battery for a date. Some will use letters for the month and a # for the year like: C-7 would have a manufacture date of March, 2007. The letters in order ABCDEFG etc. Jan, Feb, March, April etc. Most unsold batteries will be taken off the shelf by a year old and recycled,

T
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Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest, Boston

check how you charge batt as it may be pos ground not neg ground so be carefull about junping it from alt. late model car