444 on the list

[Chad]

Wow Eugen, that engine is running very well - what a nice surprise! Good luck getting the rest sorted, but that's a great start so far.

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[Eugen]

Tonight I was going through the batteries in the shop and came across the original Case battery of this 444. Hooking it up to the charger shows nothing so I figured it's dead. Was just about to throw it in the pile of dead batteries when I got the impulse to open the two caps on top and peek inside.

No acid. Hm..now I'm wondering if I should get some acid and fill it up. The thing is our local Canadian tire store has only packs of 5 gallons for the price of $50.

[Gordy]

Unless the case is cracked or the battery was on its side or top, the acid is still in it. Just concentrated due to charging breaking the H2O apart. I simply add distilled water and put on a charger and let it bubble for a couple hours to remix the water and acid. In fact I just did this to one 2 weeks ago, it had a charge but was a little weak before, now it is much better


Gordy

Of course there are times the battery is just junk

[Spike188]

Lead acid battery end of life happens when one of several things may occure.

A broken connection between plates and sulfication shorting, When a plate ages and cycles the lead slowly combines with the acid causing a lead sulfur crystal. These crystals can grow large enough to short the plates. Generally the crystals coat the lead plates blocking the ability of electron flow between the lead and acid. Also the ratio of 65% distilled water and 35% acid changes.

One myth that drives me nuts is concrete floors and batteries don't mix. Batteries and charging are temperature sensitive. Back in the days of unheated shops, batteries sitting on a cold floor absorbed the cold and would slow the charge process. Placing them on a bench or piece of wood slowed the chilling factor. Secondly unsealed batteries like the one @Eugen pictured have a leaching issue. During charging the water/acid mixture may boil over. When the solution boils over and coats the outer case it will leaves a conductive coating. This coating can cause a charging drain if it completes a circuit between post. This is extremely common on forklift batteries. Whashing the battery with a baking soda solution can reduce surface condition.

In short (pun intended) an old end of life battery needs every condition perfect to recover some charging function. The warmer the better, like setting it directly on a concrete floor with in floor heat.

Spike

[Spike188]

Looking closely at the battery photo posted by @Eugen, plate sulfercation looks like it might have bridged across the plates. If this battery was is Haiti, the top would be cut off. The empty case would become a flower pot and the lead would become fishing weights.

Spike

[Eugen]

Took the 150 cca background to Walmart and got a 300 cca battery for this tractor.

Last night I decided to see if I could get the lift spool unstuck. Not enough room to hammer it strongly. After about 20 minutes of frustration under there it got free by turning the spool while lightly hammering the end.

[Eugen]

As I've tentatively decided to make this barn find 444 the main snow duty machine it was time to checking a couple of things more carefully.

First, an oil leak in the pump area. After cleaning up the area best I could with paper towels, turned on the engine and tried to find the leak, somewhat expecting a bad scenario. Well, I got lucky, the leak was due to a loose fitting. The leak was gone after tightening the fitting.


https://vimeo.com/661065027

[Eugen]

Second: while throwing some snow I noticed oil on the side of the engine below the governor. on closer inspection the governor stop pin was out and oil was coming out that hole..

The threads on the screw were partly stripped and the copper washer missing.

Took it out to fix it and then added a copper washer. Forgot to add a little blue loctite but will do so if its loosens again.

One thing that had me a little worried was not knowing what happens inside the engine when pulling the governor stop pin out. I could've not find any pictures of the mechanism there. The manual does say this

Ahm... I really didn't want to take the engine apart. According to some folks on the internet if there pin isn't correctly installed you get a runaway engine. Put mineral back in and tested against some banks of snow. The governor kicked in just fine. This tractor is a beast!