Technical Battery smoking / power master

What would make a battery start smoking? I would think a short circuit. What about over-charging? The battery has consistently drained down ever since I got my Coupe. Now the Optima battery started smoking on the way back from a cruise night last night. I has the power master alternator that looks like an old generator.

 

Bad ground , causeing the regulation problem

 

A smoking battery means a shorted battery, either internally or externally from something else shorted. Were the cables hot when hooked up? If so it's an external short and a bad one at that! Internal means get that battery out of the vehicle NOW if haven't already done so!
The draining battery could be a bridged diode in the alternator in the case of a stock type alternator, don't know anything about the Powermaster fake generator as I've never used one. To me they don't really look like a generator anyhow.
Continual drain and recharge, especially a high amp recharge could possibly cause plates in a battery to warp and short out.

 

I suspect this alternator is the problem.


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My son has the car 100 miles away.

 

When it comes to electrical issues, never assume anything. Test and check starting with the most basic pieces and work your way though that system.

Have the battery tested with the correct style of tester. At the same time I'd pull the alternator off and have it bench tested by a competent auto electric shop. Most likely the same place to test both units.

I've seen a number of diodes blown in alternators when someone went to jump the car or jumped someone else's car with theirs and did it wrong.

Then make sure your grounds and connections are good. I've lost track of how many "Won't start/won't charge". rigs I have looked at in the past 50 something years were poor ground connections were the issue. That includes making sure that you have clean bare metal under the ground strap on nicely painted engines. I have seen one rig where the owner didn't and didn't want to scrape the paint away under the ground strap.
If it has an external regulator make sure that it is properly grounded. I ran into that ditty on my T bucket in the 70's when I mounted and external regulator on a sheet of plywood under the seat with no ground wire. That just took digging out a wiring diagram for the mid 60's alternator donor to figure out.

 

Without some careful voltage readings, we are blindfolded and this becomes a game of pin-the-donkey.

 

FYI , that "smoking" is most likely a cloud of acid vapor , it WILL eat your paint ! Might take a while to show up , but it will .

 

I'll hazard some guesses.

Your battery draining down is from a minor short.

I doubt most shorts would send excess power to the battery.

A bad regulator or a bad ground circuit could send excess power to the battery.

I just had a high-low voltage at my house because one meter mount connection on the notorious Zinsco service panel was fried (the electrician mentioned "bad neutral"). My brother had a similar voltage issue due to a bad neutral connection, possibly due to galvanic corrosion between the aluminum wire and whatever the other metals are.

 

I got my $5 on a bad ground issue

 

And/or hydrogen gas.

Any way to neutralize it?

 

always start with a good battery, then check that the battery is good, and before doing any diagnosis make sure the battery is fully charged and good......repeat if necessary

 

Over charging will boil a battery, even though yours is a gel electrolyte, it can still cook it. Take a voltage reading across the battery, at about 1500 RPM. If it is around 14 volts, your battery is probably your problem. If something over 14 and varies wildly with your RPM, your alternator/regulator is faulty. Your constant draw may or may not be connected, treat it as a separate fault.

 

If it has settled everywhere, you can make up a bi-carb soda and water mix, and spray it all over, then clean that up.

 

Billy Barty was short.

 

If its been more than a couple minutes , the damage is done ..IME

 

Optimas are great in the less mess department and I've even brought a couple back from the dead, like sitting 10years on a shelf dead.
But they are not great at taking any kind of mis-charging abuse, especially fast/overcharging will cook em.

Verify the body/frame grounds are good solid clean and tight connections.
Verify the alternator is properly grounded and wired correctly, a bad sense circuit or 'one wire' system can damage an Optima from over charging.

Personally, I am not a fan of PM alternators, had one that had a multitude of problems and have seen a few others that just didn't do what they said they were capable of. I now only use or rebuild original Ford/Delco/Denso units on my projects.

I've used Simple Green to get battery electrolyte off body panels and batteries. Liberally spray down the area and suspected area and hose it down. It won't neutralize the acid AFAIK, but it will clean most of it off til you can get to somewhere and do a proper cleaning.

 

What's the voltage at the battery, when it's running?

 

Thanks guys. My son has the car. I have to relay these questions to him. I’m thinking I should have checked the running voltage long ago.

 

Ben

 

Also be aware that hydrogen gas is very explosive and if a spark is present can cause an explosion of the battery spreading acid everywhere including on you if close by. I had this happen many many years ago while cranking a car with jumper cables in very cold weather. I was lucky and only lost a winter coat to acid being sprayed everywhere could had been much worse with acid to eyes and face.