Yale walk-behind forklift not charging.

[alphamarcaphi]

Hi All,

Have a Yale walk-behind that is pretty old from around 1994. Can barely make the model off of it, A12c5 or AL2C5.

You will have to excuse some of the lingo below.

Regardless, its a 24v battery and I can't get it to charge all of a sudden. Plug it in, and the charging station does not kick on. Battery on the forklift is thus far holding the charged, but not charging.

My buddy an electrician popped open the charging station and noticed one of the springs on the board was not sticking when the unit was charged. We taped it down, got the charger to kick on BUT... It seems to have drained the battery more.

He thinks one of the relays is shot, so I am going to try and track down the part. I am unsure what the component is with the spring on it.

What are some of the symptoms of what I have described?

 

[Delmer]

Is this something that gets used a full shift every day, or a few times a week? If it's only occasionally used, just get a smaller charger and keep it topped up.

What were the voltages of the battery before charging, during charging, and after charging? If your buddy didn't check those, get a different buddy.

 

[alphamarcaphi]

We use it maybe 10 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week. So not a lot of use. I am trying to troubleshoot if it is the battery or the charging station.

We checked the voltage come out of the charger to the battery, measured just under 24 volts. Believe it was like 23 volts.

I didn't measure the volts coming off the battery, what would I stick the volt meter on to measure? DC?

 

[Delmer]

Yes, a cheap multimeter set on DC is all you need. If you reverse the leads it will just put a - negative sign in front of the reading. Don't use the amp setting though.

23 is not enough, it should be at least 25 at the battery sitting, and closer to 26 when it's charged up. The battery needs 27 minimum to charge.

The charger may not want to start charging if it's not seeing at least 24 from the battery. When you charge a battery with a dead cell, that's when they go boom, so the charger may not charge a dead battery. You may need alternate methods to give it a surface charge to get that charger to start to charge if that's the case.

How is your "water" levels?

 

[alphamarcaphi]

Hey thank you for the reply/troubleshooting. I've never checked the water levels, just go the unit used from a Sports Authority back in August. This is all new to me within the last day. Been seeing 10 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week since then.

Battery is a little over 1/4th on the meter.

The 23 volt was what was measured at the hook up from the charging station. If the charging station is only rated at 24 volts, how could it put out 27?

The electrician did say he was fairly confident one of the relays on the charging station was shot and that could be part of/the problem. Tracking that part will have to wait until Monday, google came up with nothing.

Also, pretty sure I tried to measure the battery terminals on DC last night and couldn't get a reading. I plugged the battery into the lift just to see if it was still alive, so not sure what the story is there.

 

[lantraxco]

Silly suggestion, make sure you're plugging the charger into the battery, not the forklift. Seen it happen. The fact you couldn't get a voltage reading from the battery connection you metered suggests this may be the case.

To charge a 24 volt nominal battery you should see probably between 28 and 30 volts, just the nature of the beast with lead acid batteries. Gotta push the charge in to make the chemical reaction take place between the plates and electrolyte (acid).

 

[alphamarcaphi]

Yes, I am sure the charger is hooked up to the battery.

If it needed to be watered, would the battery hold a charge at all?

I am leaning towards the charging being the problem based on only getting 23 volts out of it.

 

[lantraxco]

If the electrolyte level is low then no, it won't take or hold a charge and damage may occur to the plates. If the connectors are exposed you can meter each cell, should be about 2.1 volts give or take and all should read very close to the same.

 

[alphamarcaphi]

Might cross off water being low based on your response, it is still holding a charge.

The connectors from the battery are exposed, in that grey casing. Though I couldn't get a reading off that yesterday, possibly had the volt meter on the wrong setting. One of these https://www.walmart.com/ip/ANDERSON...3696&wl11=online&wl12=936209261&wl13=&veh=sem

 

[lantraxco]

Yup, anderson.... the old metal units were male/female, with these you can plug anything into anything, thus the possible confusion. Yeah the two metal connectors should give you voltage, if not investigate further, meter issue or something.

As to water level, there's low and then there's too low, always want to check it at least every few months if you're charging it now and then.

 

[Delmer]

24 volts is nominal. If the battery is fully charged it will be 26Volts and needs 27 to charge at all.

Take your multi meter and check the voltage of your car battery, until you get 12 volts or so. Then check the forklift battery and you should get something close to 24. Then hook up the charger to the battery, and see what the charger puts out when it's on. Like I said, it probably needs to see 24 volts before it will turn up the voltage. It might not do anything when it's not hooked up.

Water probably isn't your issue. It's just like asking somebody what the oil level is, extremely basic place to start.

 

[alphamarcaphi]

I am confused now, hook up the charger to battery and measure the voltage then? I actually did yesterday as there is some exposed wire near the grey connection where I can measure and I shot some sparks so.......

Also the 24 volts was measured from connection from the charger, not the forklift battery. I couldn't seem to get a reading on the battery I know its not dead however as the forklift still runs.

 

[lantraxco]

Pictures might help, believe it or not.