Newell Gurus

Gang,

I have had a recurring problem with my engine batteries and am hoping that you guys can figure it out.

In the two years since I have had the coach, I have had to put in three sets of engine batteries. (All replaced by Newell) Newell said that I needed a float charger (they installed). The batteries now have Powerpulse Battery Maintenance boxes installed as well.

The symptom is that when I stop the coach (engine off) and try to restart, sometimes it wont turn over and start. Newell tested the batteries and said they were bad. The tech told me that I should always leave the batteries merged, but I cannot believe that I should have to do that.

Now, I have a brand new set of Lifeline batteries and the same thing is happening. I just drove three hours and when I stopped, it would not start again. (I merged the engine batteries with house and was able to crank). The silverleaf says that I have 13.8V from the alternator.

So what will cause batteries to die? Or maybe its a bum starter? Could the merge relay cause this?

Check your battery connections on the engine batteries. Another possibility could be a bad battery cable, sometimes corrosion gets inside the insulation.

Forest,

That is good thought! One cable has a little worn spot on it from the plastic battery cover...maybe it is the culprit! Would that account for the batteries to "test bad"?

Could be. Remember if power can't get out of the battery to start the engine then it can't get back in to keep the battery charged.
Good luck

I had that on one of other coaches, and it turned out to be the ground cable, where it hooked to the frame...I found it when I touched it, and almost burned my hand. Loose connections are trouble...

i replaced one of the starting battery cables on my 02 when i saw that that there was lots of corrosion on it near the connector. i cut the insulation back and was full of green corrosion back more than 6 inches so i just had another cable made for it.

btw, i had a similar problem on my 90 that you are having and i even stupidly changed the starter because i was convinced the starter was going bad. (did it myself and man was it heavy). it ended up being a very large inline fuse in the battery cable to the starter.

tom

Tom,

When that happened to you could you start with house batteries?

bill

so here is my story. it had started getting hard to start on the engine batteries. so i would merge them together and it would start. i just figured my batteries were bad. they were old, so i just took them out and replaced them with sams club 8d flooded. when i took the old ones in, they were too discharged to check. (btw, i later bought a cool battery tester).

well it started fine and then after awhile, it started doing the same thing. had to merge to start. in retrospec, i should have realized they were just discharging. so now the engineer in my takes over and starts looking for something else. i figure the starter has to be going bad. so i took it out (it is 90lbs on the 8v92) and just replaced it. it was a bear to get in by myself laying under the coach.

put it in, nadda. the same thing.

now something in me says start with a meter and start checking cables.....then i realized one of them was totally open.

it ended up being the humongo in line fuse on the battery cable where it was attached to the battery.

i bought one on ebay, put it in and walla, all was well.

i should have checked it first...

i bought an extra in case.

they are pricey if you buy them retail, gotta find them on ebay.

thats my story.

tom