New German car battery.

I don't even want to look at the price for one.

My understanding is that the batteries in the early days lasted longer. When you got rid of a car, you'd take the battery out to use in another car. What's the low down on this? Can it be true?

The lead-acid battery hasn't changed that much. I can only speculate that some new batteries have more thinner plates to get more CCA in a small package. Or maybe old yank tanks (18-foot long cars with soft springs) did not jolt the batteries so much.

1. Batteries did last longer because the plates were big and thick, because they HAD to be big and thick because the regulation was poor or even nonexistent.
2. Sulfation wasn't an issue because the regulation was poor, and if it was on some batteries you could pop them apart, scrape them down, and put them back together.
3. Batteries were very, very expensive. That's the real issue. You buy a new car, you move the tires and battery from the old car because tires and batteries were a substantial cost. These days, they are far cheaper.

--scott

Big thick plates also meant that the battery had lower capacity, so you win some, you lose some.

I'm surprised that manufacturers are still using wet batteries when SLA, AGM, spiral-cell, etc. seem to be proven technologies. I still see problems today with lead-acid batteries leaking and ruining cables, bodywork, etc. Some designs also seem to be better than others as far as mitigating these effects; my Jeep has a plastic battery tray with a drain hole/funnel arrangement which is great... but even that one still needed a new battery, new cables, and a new hold down when I bought it.

I know BMW is moving toward using AGM batteries... is anyone else?

nate

An old ''trick'' I once read many years ago in Popular Science (maybe it wa s Popular Mechanics) magazine. Once each year, remove the battery and drain the acid into something, then have the battery upside down and use a garde n hose to flush the crud from the battery. Pour the acid back into the batt ery and top up with new acid if needed. Suppose to make the battery last lo nger.

and if you pick the right spot on the lawn to do that, you can solve a pesky weed problem too

GW (typed while avoiding Sunday ward work)

Or unclog a drain.

crap...that's something else I need to do today GW

My guess is that this was in the 1940s?

I don't think any of the US car manufacturers went to a regulated alternator until 1960 or so. That made a huge difference.

--scott

My '61 Ventura still had a generator, and my '64 Bug. Think the first alt I saw was on my '64 Olds. Didn't pay much attention, as it never was an issue. But me and 3 mates stood on the Pontiac bumper and pissed on the generator when it caught on fire.

I think MoPar was the first to use alternators, not sure what year. I want to say 1960 or 61. I know that Studebaker got them in 1963. My '62 still had a generator and I kept it original, didn't really have a problem with it, but it was a heavy beast for its low output.

nate

So what you're saying is that the advent of alternators allowed for cheaper, smaller, and lighter car batteries? That's interesting. Thanks.

Right, but I've owned generator cars with no battery whatsoever; bump start.

A car with no batteries sounds interesting. Bump starting seems impractical. How about starting a small engine with a .22 blank cartridge. That would be cool.

you can often bump start cars with dead batteries and alternators too - often there's sufficient residual magnetism in the alternator cores to self-excite.

James Stewart, Flight of the Phoenix movie.'bump starting' with Cartridges.

jim beam wrote in news:kskpgj$vs3$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

except that has never happened. If the batt. is truly dead you can not bump start a alt car, next time you want to try, disconect the batt and It will NOT start. I thought you at least understood the simple stuff. KB