"G-Man" <g_foreman@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:13d888bstorj48a@news.supernews.com...
> Batteries are cheap. I'd start by just replacing it. I had a flaky
> battery once. It tested fine, but like you, at times it would just not
> crank. Seems I had a shorted cell that worked off/on intermittently.
>
> G-Man
>
>
>
I'm going with the explanation that it is cracked inter-cell connections
that do that. Actually, I think it is usually where the post connects to an
electrode at one end or the other. A great majority of the time I've been
able to get it going again by whacking each post smartly (stupidly?) with a
hammer. The battery still needs to be replaced, but the car can be moved.
One of the moments that make me proud was that after I taught my then-teen
aged daughter that trick she was with my wife when I was out of town. The
car died in traffic and had no electrical. Daughter found a hammer in the
trunk, popped the hood and had them on the road in no time. BTW - bad
connections on the clamps react differently. Being exposed to air, they form
a layer of oxide that gets worse as more current flows. Internal connections
seem to weld together a bit as more current flows, producing a weird
increase in starter speed as the starter is held on.

I never saw this failure mode before the mid-'80s. At that time it was
associated with the new-at-the-time side post batteries, but I saw it on
even top-post batteries. I've replaced probably a dozen that have failed
that way since then.

Mike