Miata Mailing List: October 1996, Message #0125
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   From: "Bruce A. Hanna" 

Subject: Saga of the mighty OEM miata battery (long)

   Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 15:31:50 -0500



Last Saturday evening the battery in our '93 Ford Explorer gave up the

ghost. This is the second Motorcraft battery to fail in this vehicle, the

first after 18 months was replaced under warranty.  So here I have a 4000

lb Explorer dead in the water in the driveway, which is downhill from the

garage, and the weather forecast is naturally, for rain.  A boost from

another car does not work, and the battery will not accept a

charge from a battery charger. 

 I quicky sum up my options:

 1. the next morning, Sunday, call AAA & have them tow the barge to their

local Ali Baba Auto repair shop for their $100 battery special offered

only on Sundays.

 2. leave the poor beast in the driveway and the next morning go buy a

battery and install it in the rain, some fun eh!. 

 MIATA CONTENT COMING NEXT

 Then I rememeberd that last year I replaced my August '89 OEM Miata

battery because Winter was coming and after all how much longer could a 6

year old battery go on cranking.  Since I bought the new battery by mail,

I could not very well return the old one, and anyway it was still working

fine, so I and kept it in the garage, and every few months hooked up my

motorcycle 1 amp trickle charger for a day or two.  Why you may ask, I

guess I am truly compulsive.  Well I begin to think, could this

diminutive, 7 year old, idle for 1 year,  gel cell crank over the mighty

4.0 l motor.  Well out goes the dead Motorcraft, in goes the

awakened Panasonic, & yep you guessed it, VROOM goes the motor, I quickly

dock the Explorer into the garage, and sure enough the next morning in the

rain I install a new Price Club $42 battery in my dry garage.

 

An amazing little battery !



Bruce Hanna



















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