CAT 262 battery problems??

[shurley9115]

hey guys my friend has got a CAT 262 skid steer. put a brand new battery in three weeks ago and it has worked fine. now the thing wants to act like it wont start. the alt. checks out ok and the starter seems to be engaging. al the thing does is click like the battery is dead. it starts to turn over if u try and jump it off. but it wont start. i have not been yet to look at it. seems like there cld be a short somewhere. anyone know what might be up?????ointhead

 

[willie59]

Well, you can't rule out the possiblity the new battery has failed. How much corrosion was on the cables, were they cleaned well during replacement? If the corrosion was heavy, I've even seen the corrosion migrate into where cable meets lug terminal, even on molded terminals. Point is, a number of things can cause this, but is usually easy to find. You simply need a 12C test light probe. Hold the ground clamp end of the tester directly onto the neg post of the battery. Place the test needle of the test probe directly to the pos post of the battery, it should light the lamp in the tester. Have someone turn switch to engage starter. Does the lamp go out? If so, bad battery. If not, remain holding neg clamp to neg post, not lug terminal, move probe needle to pos post lug terminal, turn switch to start. Does lamp go out? If so, bad pos connection. If not, move ground clamp of tester to neg lug terminal. Try again. If light stays lit, move probe needle to cable connection to starter. If the lamp stays lit at this point, you need to check your grounds. Ground strap from motor to frame and ground cable from battery to frame. If all this checks ok, sounds like you have a starter problem.

 

[FL450B]

I would try a voltage leak down test and see if you have the same voltage at the end of the cable that you have at the battery post sould only have a small amout of loss like stated above i cut the covering off of cable to find that the wire has been blow away in side the housing

 

[John C.]

I am assuming you have an "A" model 262 which is a few years old. The fact that it needed a new battery and that the alternator is apparently charging tells me the starter solenoid contact plates are probably arched out real bad. It happens a lot when a battery starts getting old. You will hear the solenoid snap but the starter won't turn.

Put a volt meter on the battery and have someone try to start the engine. The needle should drop to around 9.5 to 10 volts when the engine starts turning. If yours barely drops I would suspect the starter.

Good Luck!