(ET) Bad luck? bad lot? bad owner?

[tbamc <tbamc gbta net>]

Don't know how accurate this old thing is, but s.g. of all 3 cells looks 
to be about 1.15.

Open vs shorted vs neither was a question I had.  How to tell the 
difference?  My thinking, like John's was that an open cell would show 
zero s.c. voltage.  If shorted, 4.xx volts.  But, how to tell the 
difference between a shorted cell vs a very tired battery?  If two of 
the 3 cells were ok, would not the s.g. in those cells be considerably 
higher than in the shorted cell, after charging?

Meter I'm using is a Fluke DMM.

<Not so fast!  If the problem is a dead cell, not a shorted one, 
sometimes a
long, slow equalization (for a golf car battery, constant current at around
3-5 amps from something between several hours and several days ) may be 
able
to get you going again.  >

I'm aware of this, just haven't  figured out how to do it yet.  The only 
charger I have that's not 10A is 12v, 2A.

I found it interesting--because I don't understand it--that the old big 
charger, on wheels, reads about 7.5 volts (between battery posts) when 
set on 6v/10A.  The small portable charger reads 9.5v when set on 6v/10A. 

So far I've used the big charger on it for close to 10 hours and haven't 
seen the 4.10v move a bit.

Thanks again.

Thon