My Sparrow has been out of commission for a while now, owing to an
intermittent electrical problem. This may not even be related but
about six weeks ago I started experiencing a chattering when I engaged
the starter position for the ON mode. The system kept trying to start
up, even tho the green motor light was already on. Once the vehicle
got moving it was fine but @ start-up the problem was usually there,
not serious but annoying. Now i'm not an electrical Wiz like a lot of
you folks are so I figured I'd let the system fail, then track down
the problem.

When it finally failed - it was Total Electrical Failure. NO juice to
anything - instruments, lights & of course the windows were also
stuck, open. I WAS very fortunate where. A single block from home. I
towed the vehicle home and started trying to get her to take a charge.
My thinking was because there was also a time factor, the whole charge
had dropped so low that the charger would not recognize the 110 input
from the wall socket (minimum 135 if memory serves) so I started
individually charging the batteries.

The long and short of all this is that I found that the battery which
points fore/aft directly under the door opening Batt #??, had a loose
battery connection which rattled loose ENUF to allow that connection
to short out (wrong term?) the whole vehicle.

-
Why? Would the opening/closing of the door create enuf vibration to do
this? Would 11K+ miles vibrate enuf? I hadn't once opened the
underseat compartment since my bird was returned to me with Recond's
some 3K miles ago. Might it have been not tightened enuf then?
-

When I thought that the problem had been diagnosed, loose connection,
I was relieved. When I looked more closely @ the battery post however,
I became dismayed. The post was melted, significantly. It is no longer
round and symetrical. There's evidence of at least 3/4 events. Also
scorching on the underside of the rubberized cable ends.

What's the groups sense on this Has anyone else had this come up,
causing their bird to fail? Had we all better check all batteries for
solid connections?

Alan
stuck @ speedo reading 11712

- personal aside - 1- Should I make a tight enuf connection and just
continue the process? or 1a- Do they replace battery posts? 2- is
there any sense in continuing to charge the other dozen batteries?