Battery Terminals

I cleaned the battery terminals on my truck today. First time I have done that since I don't know when. When I was a kid it was one of those fix-or-repair-daily kinda chores: buy a dollar's worth of gas, check the oil (it was always low), and scrape the crude off the battery terminals. The truck is 13 years old and on its' third battery. Back in olden times batteries died slow lingering deaths, kind of like cancer. You could do things to prolong their life like add water, put them on the charger, clean the terminals, or even replace the cable ends. But about 20 years ago or so something changed and a battery's demise became a matter of sudden death, like a heart attack. One moment it's fine and the next time you get in and turn the key it's dead. You can play around, get a jump, charge it, go through the motions, but it's not going to help. Face it, Jim, it's dead. Money might have something to do with it as well. Back in the good old days a battery cost a couple of days wages, so if you could get even another week or two out of a battery that was significant. Nowadays a battery costs, hmmm, well, they still cost a chunk of change, but it's more like half a day's wages. Or maybe it's just that I spent so much time fiddling with batteries that I just don't care any more. It's dead, Jim, get a new one.

Yesterday my truck was acting cranky. Normally you turn the key, the starter turns the engine over and it starts pretty much instantly. Yesterday it was cranking kind of slow and it actually took a couple of seconds to catch. Today was even worse. I had to give it some gas and keep the RPM's up around two grand to keep it running. This isn't right. Last time I had the hood open (when I got back from Denver I thought I should probably check the oil. 110K miles and the oil level is fine. I was shocked) I noticed that there was a bunch of corrosion around the positive battery terminal. Well, perhaps time has finally caught up with it. So I cleaned the terminals and drove to Cornelius to drop off a load of old computer stuff and now it seems fine.

Valuable! Arrggg! How can you forsake me?

Computer Drive Connection, Cornelius, Oregon
Computer Recycling