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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / 36 ford left ignition on battery died

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Discussion Topic: 36 ford left ignition on battery died -- page: 1 2

joe shell

12-07-2012 @ 5:35 PM

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I recently purchased a 36 cabrilet restored mostly to original. After parking the car in my garage, I left the ignition switch in the on position. The next day the battery, a six volt optima, was dead. I charged the battery and the car started right up with no problems. This car has some hesitation when starting in first gear and when shifting into second at say 15 mph. It seems to sputter under load at low rpm. As the rpm increases at higher speeds the engine runs smoothly. Could leaving the key on and killing the battery have caused damage to the points and/or coil? I assume the points were closed when I left the ignition on otherwise the battery would not have drained. Is this correct? Is there an easy way to check the coil? Thanks for any suggestions.

1934 Ford

12-07-2012 @ 6:47 PM

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Joe,
I did the same thing on my 34 and melted the coil.
When I asked the coil re-builder how that happened,
he said "you must have put a charger on the battery with the ignition switch on".
I'm now more attentive to charging batteries. If an open circuit can do that, it could have done your damage too. Must have somting to do with whether the points are fully closed or not.

fla48

12-07-2012 @ 7:05 PM

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Joe,
34 Ford is correct. Fried the coil on my 48 by forgetting to turn off the ignition after I finished working on the car. Probably did not hurt your points, just need a new coil.

40 Coupe

12-08-2012 @ 2:47 AM

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You should have to turn the ignition off to get the car to stop running. To me your symptoms appear to lead to the carburetor accelerator pump, not the distributor or coil. Pushing the gas pedal down should result in a fairly strong stream of gas being added to the fuel mixture, so the car accelerates without hesitation. You should have a Stromberg 97 Carb. on your 36 Cabrolet. Stromberg is still making the best parts for the Carb.

This message was edited by 40 Coupe on 12-8-12 @ 2:48 AM

supereal

12-08-2012 @ 6:44 AM

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Many, if not all of us, have forgotten to turn the ignition off, and cooked the coil. The coil's insulation is breached, causing shorts between the windings. This lowers the output, causing the performance problems mentioned, sort of like having bad spark plugs. Plan to replace the points, as it is probable that they have been turned blue by the prolonged current flow. Long ago, I installed a master cutoff switch on my battery, in case my old memory lapsed. When charging an Optima battery, it must be done very slowly. They are great batteries, but complete discharge can damage them, making full recharge unlikely.

Stroker

12-08-2012 @ 7:08 AM

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A completely discharged Optima can often be brought "back to life" by hooking it up
in parallel with a good battery (lead-acid ok) during charging. This allows the charger to "sense" a load and deliver a charging current. Dead Optima's act like an open circuit, and won't provide a load for the charger. After charging for about 30 minutes, you can remove the good battery and the Optima should continue to charge on its' own.

This has "saved" quite a few supposedly junk Optimas. Super's advice about charging rates, should be followed, as it is easy to damage any AGM battery by charging too
fast. For the truly paranoid, Optima makes a dedicated charger that is pricey but
designed just to charge AGM's.

joe shell

12-08-2012 @ 11:58 AM

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Thanks to all for your input. I bought a new set of points and distributor gaskets which I hope to install next week. I will also swap out the coil with a known good one. As I think about this hesitation problem, I'm not sure it was caused by me leaving the ignitio on. It is quite possible that I had the hesitation before I left the ignition on overnight, can't remember. That did kill the battery for sure, so It is probable that some damage was done to the points. When I charged the 6 V Optima battery I did so at 6 amps and it took 12 to 15 hours to bring it to full charge. that was two weeks ago. I'm sure the ignition was off during the charging. The battery has been fine and the car starts instantly. i checked one plug and it was black sooty. Gas mileage has been terrible at about 7 mpg, so I probably have multiple problems.

TomO

12-10-2012 @ 2:22 PM

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Joe, I believe that you cooked your coil. Check the spark at idle, it should be at least 1/2" and blue in color.

Tom

joe shell

12-12-2012 @ 5:02 PM

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Thanks for the suggestion Tom. I just checked the spark by running a screwdriver from the top of the spark plug to the head. Got a good blueish white spark. Took the car for a ride today and it went 60 mph. I plan on changing the points to see if that helps with the hesitation problem, but not familiar with the 1936 distributor.

supereal

12-12-2012 @ 8:01 PM

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The best diagnostic tool to cure hesitation is a vacuum gauge. If you don't have a symptom chart, i'll post one.

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