...w/o a voltmeter? can you? I am a welder/mechanic and I haven't moved all my tools to a new job, like a multimeter. A small older forklift, no ecm, would not start so I cleaned the dirty! terminals, grounds, connections to starter and solenoid(they were together), nothing. So I put a non-LED test light on the battery, it was dim. Then I tested the starter's ground and the solenoid's positive, same light. Then I pulled the wire from the solenoid and checked it with the test light, when I hit the ignition switch it glowed dim, like the other tests. Having no other test tools, I pulled up the shop's service truck and jumpered it off, and it started, I ran it for about 15 minutes on the jumpers and went to pull the cables, and the forklift shut off at once the + was off. So I started it back up, waited a little and pulled the negative off first, and it still shut off immediately.
I'm assuming that the battery would hold no charge whatsover(all the cells were full, though). and that the f/l depended on the shop truck, but for battery or alternator? The boss said we'll fix it tomorrow. I thought that I should have checked the batt voltage if I could have, tried to charge the battery alone, unconnected, if needed, then put it in and checked charging voltage of the f/ls alternator. We had other batteries that were new but a different style connection post and size, same voltage, but not practical to switch over just for a test.. Please advise. If they ask tomorrow, I'd like to tell them It seemed as though the forklift acted fine with the trucks system, but if it had that battery would the alt. keep it charged?
I'm assuming that the battery would hold no charge whatsover(all the cells were full, though). and that the f/l depended on the shop truck, but for battery or alternator? The boss said we'll fix it tomorrow. I thought that I should have checked the batt voltage if I could have, tried to charge the battery alone, unconnected, if needed, then put it in and checked charging voltage of the f/ls alternator. We had other batteries that were new but a different style connection post and size, same voltage, but not practical to switch over just for a test.. Please advise. If they ask tomorrow, I'd like to tell them It seemed as though the forklift acted fine with the trucks system, but if it had that battery would the alt. keep it charged?