Bad Day - Weird Reason

While wiring a bike today I tried to do something I always do which is to use my battery charger in place of the rectifier (Tri-Spark MOSFET in this case) along with an external ammeter to see if any circuits have abnormal current needs and if the battery charges. Nothing was making any sense, so I checked the output of my battery charger - 11 volts. Ok, that's no big deal - here's the weird reason.

The first ever expensive tool I bought was that Exide SS-6A Automatic Battery Charger. I remember talking myself in and out of spending the fortune on it (it was actually cheap but being stone broke and paying my way through college without help, it might as well have been fortune). That was in 1969. That charger has served me well all those years. Internally it's very simple and I even have the schematic and parts list but unfortunately, the parts list has company, not industry part numbers. I suspect that one of the two Zener diodes is no longer working right but I don't know their values. All other components seem to be OK.

I suppose I'll stick it on a shelf and order a new one from Amazon every 2-3 years.

1969 surely you could put in a warranty claim

marshg246 said:

While wiring a bike today I tried to do something I always do which is to use my battery charger in place of the rectifier (Tri-Spark MOSFET in this case) along with an external ammeter to see if any circuits have abnormal current needs and if the battery charges. Nothing was making any sense, so I checked the output of my battery charger - 11 volts. Ok, that's no big deal - here's the weird reason.

The first ever expensive tool I bought was that Exide SS-6A Automatic Battery Charger. I remember talking myself in and out of spending the fortune on it (it was actually cheap but being stone broke and paying my way through college without help, it might as well have been fortune). That was in 1969. That charger has served me well all those years. Internally it's very simple and I even have the schematic and parts list but unfortunately, the parts list has company, not industry part numbers. I suspect that one of the two Zener diodes is no longer working right but I don't know their values. All other components seem to be OK.

I suppose I'll stick it on a shelf and order a new one from Amazon every 2-3 years.

Click to expand...

Let me know where you end up. I need a 6V QUALITY charger.

concours said:

Let me know where you end up. I need a 6V QUALITY charger.

Click to expand...

Did you mean a 6 amp or are you really looking for 6 volt. There are a bunch with both 6v & 12v but I haven't noticed any 6v only. I'm still looking. Even though I'm no longer poor, I hate spending more than needed for a job. My old on has been dropped at least 50 time, has been caught in a thunderstorm while charging a car, has been connected backwards a few times, and always worked fine until the other day. That's what I would like to replicate but all I'm finding is fancy plastic units.

I hate modern chargers. You cannot push them in any way. Look on ebay for a good old
6-12v model and it will be good if it weighs about as much as your bike.

Onder said:

I hate modern chargers. You cannot push them in any way. Look on ebay for a good old
6-12v model and it will be good if it weighs about as much as your bike.

Click to expand...

Considering one on ebay right now. It's the same basic unit as my old one but with a 1981 build date. It has a cigarette lighter adapter rather than clips (easy enough to change), but he wants $80, I offered $40.

Say Folks,

You absolutely, positively want a NOCO charger. Does everything but the dishes.

I have used them for about eight years, and just this week, I bought their new Lithium jump starter.

The one below is the new model that is best suited for bikes. They have the most sophisticated charge profile of any out there.

This is an affiliate link, so I will name my yacht after you if you click it.


Read the info on the page; it is pretty thorough. It's their newest model which has the added feature of a "dumb" charger mode which will force voltage into a dead battery. I have had to keep an old dumb charger around for decades so I could use that function. Now built in.

Anyway, I have been the route with chargers, still have my original Sears Craftsman smart charger in the garage, which I think was the first smart charger on the market (which I bought for $50 in the 80s). $50 back then is the equivalent of $150 now, so I was serious about trying to keep the MK3 battery charged up.

And I have about six other chargers of varying capability bought since then, but the NOCO is the bomb as I did a very deep dive into charging for an innovative voltmeter project a few years ago and evaluated all of them very thoroughly.

Hope This Helps.

Mike (from Motolectric)

I have used a Schumacker for many years 6 volt-12 volt. 2 amp or 6amp. Speaking of abuse: I also use it to nickel plate nuts and bolt. Saying that it will probably die tomorrow.