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
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