CAT 955K TURNS over but wont run.

[Shimmy1]

I'm not an old Cat guy, is it 12V or 24V? If it's 24V, you need two chargers.

Yep, after looking at some of the first posts, it appears it's 24V. You need TWO chargers, unless you have a 24V charger. You're not going to get it started with the positive battery dead, and it almost surely is. Find a trickle charger, 1 amp or less, and bring that new battery back up very slowly or you'll damage it.

 

[Themaskman72]

It's 2 large 12v batteries connected together.

 

[Shimmy1]

Are they connected like this:Or like this:

 

[Shimmy1]

Hopefully you can understand these pics. Here is how you charge a 24V system, with either one 24V charger or two 12V chargers.

 

[DMiller]

Most if not all HE is set up 24V. One other caution for those running Old Obsolete makes as I have is many can be Positive Ground. Can still use conventional chargers to recharge on battery at a time just do not attempt to jump start from another machine and if know the hazard as well the conditions to do so do Not let the two machines touch.
My Allis is 24V +grd, I have two group 31 12V batteries tied in series to make 24V. Conventional car or pickup batteries will not have the amps available or the recovery capacity to turn these machines over for very long.

 

[Nitelite]

That engine is not going to start turning over that slow. You are going to have to spin it at least 550 RPMs to start it. Those batteries are not what they should be or your starter might be dragging. What about your battery cables, are they getting hot and are they large enough to carry the current?

Harbor Freight has a small 12 volt pump that cost about thirty dollars with 20% off coupon (Item # 63324) . You can install that pump inline from the fuel line coming from from the tank just before the fuel filter. If you want to eliminate bad fuel just draw fuel from a fresh 5 gallon pail of fuel. Once installed inline you can let it build pressure and then bleed your entire fuel system without cranking the engine. After my engine overhaul, that is how I bled my entire fuel system and she fired right up upon the second or third revolution. Once the engine runs, remove the temporary in line pump. To hook the pump up use a supply water hose off of an automatic washing machine. Cut the hose in half and it will screw on to the pump at the inlet and outlet leaving you with two rubber hoses to connect the pump inline to your machine with hose clamps. The little pump is for water but it handles diesel fuel just fine.

Crack the oil drain plug just enough to see if there is water or oil in the bottom of the pan. Crank it with the glow plugs removed. hold a mirror over the glow plug holes and see if you get moisture, (water) on your mirror glass.

If I suspected water in the engine being the no start culprit, I would drain the cooling system and then try to start the engine. Just don't let it run long enough to over heat if it does start.

 

[Themaskman72]

Its like the top pic shimmy, that's the problem, I haven't actually recharged the batteries right and since I got the New batteries I have turned it over a lot.

 

[Shimmy1]

Its like the top pic shimmy, that's the problem, I haven't actually recharged the batteries right and since I got the New batteries I have turned it over a lot.

If you haven't done any charging on the positive battery at all, you NEED to get it charged up, and slowly. If you haven't charged on it, it is going to be dead. Get your voltmeter and check it, anything below 10V and you may have already damaged it. Find a 1 amp maintainer charger and give it a couple days, if you put more than 1 or 2 amps to it, it will work for awhile, but its life will be dramatically reduced; it may be already.

 

[Delmer]

Charge one battery till the charge rate drops to a couple amps, then charge the other one.

Or leave it on all night on one battery, and all day on the other one.

Assuming you have an automatic battery charger? what's the amp rating on the charger?

Shimmy, where are you getting the info on trickle charging a dead one? never heard that before.

 

[Shimmy1]

Charge one battery till the charge rate drops to a couple amps, then charge the other one.

Or leave it on all night on one battery, and all day on the other one.

Assuming you have an automatic battery charger? what's the amp rating on the charger?

Shimmy, where are you getting the info on trickle charging a dead one? never heard that before.

I did a little checking online, but couldn't readily find anything. I know I've seen it talked about on here, and I also know from personal experience. We have 5 trucks, 3 of them have had the batteries ran stone dead several times (I'm not at all proud to admit that fact), and two of them have compromised batteries. We've owned all three trucks for more than 5 years, and after replacing batteries they all would stay charged for months at a time. In the last couple years, when the light fairy caused the batteries to go dead, 1 of them we were able to put the trickle charger on both times and those batteries are fine. The other 2 have had to be jump started because we needed the trucks, and they both will be dead to the point of not starting in a week or two of non-use. I'm pretty sure that it's only one or two batteries of the four (in each truck, yuck) that are causing the problems, and when I get a chance I'm going to pull all the cables, trickle charge each battery fully, and let them set for a week and see which ones go dead. Since they are all the same batteries, I'm hoping I have 4 good ones I can put in one truck and replace the other 4 instead of buying all 8. We don't mess around with mixing new batteries and old. If one battery is shot, the whole set gets replaced.

 

[Themaskman72]

I have 4 chargers, they all charge at 100 amps and are automatic, they all have 200 amp jump start.

 

[Shimmy1]

I have 4 chargers, they all charge at 100 amps and are automatic, they all have 200 amp jump start.

They are either 100 or 200 amps?? Pretty hot chargers. Most small chargers I've seen are 2/10/50 boost or 2/15/100 boost, and the larger ones are usually 30/60/200 boost or 40/70/300 boost. I see mostly Schumacher chargers around here, there are most certainly other options, but I don't think I've ever seen a charger that doesn't charge less than 100 amps. That would boil over pretty much any smaller battery that was dead I would think.

 

[Themaskman72]

I will take another look tomorrow.

 

[DMiller]

What you describe on trickling a battery back to life can be short lived as what you did was force the lead sulfate 'corrosion' layers off or caused the sulfate in the bottom that had sloughed to spread out from perturbation of the acid by the charging. Average battery today is a remanufactured lead or reclaimed lead device, much of this material comes from recycled batteries and can be a bit troublesome in that it does not stand up as well as newly smelted lead just as recycled steels rust faster.

 

[Delmer]

100 amp charge and 200 boost makes sense to me, except I've never seen a 100 amp 12 volt charger, that's 1,200 watts and you're not going to get that power out of a 120v plug after the conversion loss.

So you have four big automatic chargers, you can either be real careful to check that they're not grounded together, so that when they're plugged into the same grid they short out with the positive of one hooked to the negative of the other etc. Or you can disconnect one of the batteries and leave the other one connected while you charge them both.

I agree with Shimmy that want the battery fully charged before you try to start with it, just never heard that trickling was the way to go. I thought a drained battery would suck up 20 or more amps without any problem until it gets close to full, or gets too warm.

 

[AllDodge]

I would charge it around 20 amps and give it some time.

I hope after getting them charged it will spin over faster, if not you may have the same issue I did with my D3, it was rusted inside

 

[Shimmy1]

100 amp charge and 200 boost makes sense to me, except I've never seen a 100 amp 12 volt charger, that's 1,200 watts and you're not going to get that power out of a 120v plug after the conversion loss.

Here's a 300 amp model.

http://m.northerntool.com/products/shop~tools~product_200446605_200446605?hotline=false

 

[56wrench]

have you done a compression test? it didn't sound right in the video. All that brown or cream colored residue in the top end usually indicates an internal coolant leak or an exceptional amount of condensation which could be caused by a number of things. The head gasket may be leaking. Believe it or not, i've seen guys try to re-use them and that is begging for failure. If a compression test comes up low on all cylinders, you may have dry cylinders from sitting a long time. Unlikely, but rare. The other possible place for coolant to be entering would be the liner o-rings which would show up with the cooling system full of straight water and then pressuring it up with about 5 psi and the oil pan off. Then look up from underneath and see where the water is dripping from. Just a couple of ideas

 

[Welder Dave]

Yes charge at low rate around 2 amps if newer batteries are dead or almost dead. The tandem dump I bought had fairly new batteries but didn't have enough charge to turn the engine over so I took them into a place that reconditions batteries to have them tested. They said they were low and might be OK but charge at 2 amps for 2 or 3 days. I charged them individually overnight for about 15 hours (needed the truck) and they hold a charge now. I think they said charging at a high rate can warp the plates and cause other problems. I have a reconditioned battery I got from them in my tractor that's still going after 12 years. The 8D in my Cat went 10 years. This place told me in the past it can take 2 or 3 days to fully charge a battery but slow charge is best. They said their reconditioning machine basically cycles between a trickle charge and about 6-10 amps back and forth to break up the sulfation. Sometimes they do that and then change the battery acid. The reconditioned batteries have a 1 year guarantee and are less than 1/2 the cost of a new battery. The 8D cost me $80 exchange and the group 31 truck battery $50 exchange. Another battery in the truck was bad but they gave me $10 for it.

 

[old-iron-habit]

. The head gasket may be leaking. Believe it or not, i've seen guys try to re-use them and that is begging for failure.

For years Cat head gaskets were made to be reused. The 955 series was about when they quit using them but I'm not sure exactly what letter designation..