[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
(ET) Battery Box Corrosion
Hi
1/2 inch or so of Baking soda. In the bottom is about the cheapest and
probably the best protection, even down the sides of the batteries.
GEof
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 23:28:04 -0400
From: Andrew Poush <agp vt edu>
To: Elec-Trak Elec-Trak List <elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu>
Subject: Re: (ET) Battery box corrosion
Message-ID: <86B5415F-75EA-4A84-AE33-059C96BB008E vt edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
After much reading about and discussing this problem I have concluded that I
do not have time now to replace even one of the two battery boxes. So until
that future time, I have scraped away as much corrosion as I can. Now I
need to put another set of flooded batteries in the tractor and get back to
mowing. My concern is to minimize further corrosion, especially on the
frame, but on a student budget. So I have a couple ideas that the rest of
you might want to sanity check for me.
The old battery tray is shot and does not appear to be a durable design. I
bought battery bags but the perforated/corroded metal is a bit jagged so a
protective intermediate layer appears to be needed. It seems I could
fashion some ABS plastic into a shield by cutting it into a plus shape and
bending the sides up. Putting the bags in next and then the batteries seems
reasonable. Using wooden shims on the outside of the battery bags ought to
work well enough to hold the bags up, keep the batteries from sliding
around, and prevent the wood from being soaked in acid (which seemed to
contribute to the corrosion in the past).
But the drain port is still bugging me. I am debating leaving the bags
without drains. The main reasons in favor of that are:
1) the front drain port has been leaking acid onto the steering gear and
corroding it.
2) the ABS plastic sheet with merely a hole in it would not keep all the
acid off the frame either (during runs up and down hills)
3) I have not been able to think of a simple way to attach a hose to a hole
in the ABS plastic (or the battery bag). I do have some of the two part PVC
solvent cement...
Feedback?
Regards,
Andy Poush