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Battery Won't Charge

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:59 pm
by zephyrus17
I went back home for a holiday for 1 month and my 1990 na6 won't start. I bought a Projecta 400 trickle charger, set it to 12v, and connected the positive to positive, negative to negative. But it only says "Power On", the "Charging" light doesn't come on. The charger manual says it's just simply dead flat. Is this car a positive charged car so I have to connect the positive lead to the body and then to the battery?

Re: Battery Won't Charge

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:20 pm
by zephyrus17
Sorry for the double post, but I couldn't edit my previous one.

After some calling around, it turns out the previous owner used an acid based battery since he told me to 'add distilled water'. The charger won't work so I'll try Battery World tomorrow and see if I can get myself supercharge gold or some good gel based battery.

Re: Battery Won't Charge

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 9:06 pm
by SPy vs. SPy
zephyrus17 wrote: Is this car a positive charged car so I have to connect the positive lead to the body and then to the battery?


The body of the car is ground or Negative, Positive is anything supplied by positive side of the battery and the alternator.

If you have the negative connected to the negative terminal of the battery then you have a dead short across your charger, hence no charging.

Disconnect the battery on both terminals and connect the charger Neg - Neg and Pos - Pos see what it says then.

If you have been advised to add distilled water I would be getting the alternator checked as it sounds like it is over-volting which is not good.

I would get the above checked ASAP and also get a Gel Cell ASAP too before your boot rusts off the car.

Re: Battery Won't Charge

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:09 pm
by GP
also get a Gel Cell ASAP too before your boot rusts off the car

Or better still an AGM battery

Re: Battery Won't Charge

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:49 pm
by Mr Morlock
check out what GP is saying- there was a very recent useful discussion about the right battery for the MX5

Insofar as charging is concerned the battery charger has a black lead and a red one. You connect these to battery red- positive + and black negative .If it is a wet cell batt it is probably wise to remove the plugs and also make sure there is distilled water covering the plates. The charger when switched on should show it is charging. A flat batt may take a couple of days to charge.