Yanmar generator now runs, but killed a new battery in 3 mins.

[ttoks]

I followed the advice in the last thread, it turns out there was a bit a junk in the nozzle coming out of the injector pump, cleaned it up and it fired up immediately, blew a heap of black smoke for about a minute then cleaned up and ran nice and smooth for about 3 minutes before dying.

the battery is dead, the negative connection to the battery was to hot to touch and the battery is KIA, i haven't noticed anything else, but I do know this model has an electronic kill switch on the injector pump that is fail safe so no power, no fuel.

I know less about electrical than I do about diesels, what's the most likely cause to killing battery's so fast?

[ttoks]

okay so its just not charging, the new battery is just dead, not damaged it seems (took it back to the store so they could put they're tester on it, came up as healthy but dead flat).

Still not sure if the very got negative is normal, and if so what might be causing it and what might be draining the battery so fast, and/or what could be causing it to not charge.

[milomilo]

okay so its just not charging, the new battery is just dead, not damaged it seems (took it back to the store so they could put they're tester on it, came up as healthy but dead flat).

Still not sure if the very got negative is normal, and if so what might be causing it and what might be draining the battery so fast, and/or what could be causing it to not charge.

Next time you run it check the battery voltage to see if it reads around 14 volts.

[ttoks]

Next time you run it check the battery voltage to see if it reads around 14 volts.

Would that indicate it's charging?

[M J D]

Your alternator could have a stuck regulator or a dead short. You said battery is good but it could have had something killing one of the cells that got dislodged. Typical charge is about 13-1/2 volts with up to 15 or so upon startup which that number should drop after a short while.

[ttoks]

Your alternator could have a stuck regulator or a dead short. You said battery is good but it could have had something killing one of the cells that got dislodged. Typical charge is about 13-1/2 volts with up to 15 or so upon startup which that number should drop after a short while.

okay so I put a multimeter over it, it is charging at 14.6 volts just after starting, I left it to run for two minutes with another new battery and it stayed at 14.6 volts, could this indicate that it's continuing to charge the battery? or should i try just letting it go a bit longer and see if it drops back to 13-13.5?

[M J D]

okay so I put a multimeter over it, it is charging at 14.6 volts just after starting, I left it to run for two minutes with another new battery and it stayed at 14.6 volts, could this indicate that it's continuing to charge the battery? or should i try just letting it go a bit longer and see if it drops back to 13-13.5?

That's what I would do. I've seen GM alternators with a bad internal voltage regulator push 18 or more volts. I still wouldn't rule out a defective battery. Most batteries should be between 12.5 and 13 or so volts on their own.

[mrmikey]

How many wires on the run solenoid on the pump? If there's three there's a ground, pull in an hold circuit. The pull in draws I think 30A or so but it's just for a second or so just to pull the solenoid in then the hold holds it in place. If there is three wires, chance they got reversed...maybe...just a shot in the dark...............Mike

[bead-boy]

If the old battery was dead on that first run, it would have been in a high charge mode and could have warmed up due to taking a heavy charge. Dirty/bad connection would also cause heat.

Testing with a fully charged battery was a good test. Now just monitor temps and voltages to see if anything changes.

[SweetMK]

Possibly, the first battery was connected backwards (as far as the + and - )

There is not much that can be done to completely discharge a battery in a few minutes,,
most good batteries will recover some voltage after a heavy discharge, just due to chemical reactions.

[milomilo]

okay so I put a multimeter over it, it is charging at 14.6 volts just after starting, I left it to run for two minutes with another new battery and it stayed at 14.6 volts, could this indicate that it's continuing to charge the battery? or should i try just letting it go a bit longer and see if it drops back to 13-13.5?

You are in the OK zone. 13-14 1/2 volts is OK. After running it for several minutes check and see if the battery cable is hot. Should not be hot as long as your connections are clean.

[ttoks]

alright so it appears that the problem was actually just a faulty brand new battery, I replaced it with another new battery, did the above checked that it was charging, after first starting the battery volts dropped back down from 14.6 to 13.5 and hovered around there while running and dropping to 12.8 when turned off.

Ran it for half an hour running an electric pottery kiln for load and all seems to be good, drained the oil again, changed and cleaned all of the filters and she seems to run like a top.

Thanks for all of the help fellas, it's got me going for sure.