Originally Posted by
athomas
Its a hard one to measure if you don't have a storage scope or an analogue meter.
The indications for mechanical operation sure do point to bolt stick.
That,s correct ,its hard to measure batt voltage under load without an oscilloscope or an analogue meter. If you own a digital multimeter ,its not impossible for this task ,and it does try to capture the cylcing of up and down voltage during full auto , aired up .
I just went through this with my X-mag ( my particular problem ended up resulting in 2 failed battery's , under a load ! That's rite both of them !
I just kept telling myself " They are not that old " 1st one is 5yrs old , 2nd one is (?how ever many?) years old and gets hot when charging ,and never gets off the red ,full charge status . That one i suspected had a bad cell , set it aside ,called it bad for now . The 5 yr old KC battery held a charge 19.2 volts sitting around
This is what i did to test them under load , meaning aired up, in E-mode only .Set meter to DC volts
Put the red lead on one of the white solenoid wire soldered points on the board , Black on the board ground screw above the display ,hold down on the trigger on full auto ,
watch the numbers cycle . It happens very fast so watch for the lowest number during cycle ,trigger held,and highest number ,this was the data i got
5 yr old KC batt- 17.19v - resting Voltage / 11.57v trigger held down in full auto- garbage
old batt gets hot - 16.7v - resting Voltage / 8.26v trigger held down in full auto - garbage
brand new AGD batt- 20.01v - resting Voltage / 12.32v trigger held down in full auto -bingo ,never dropped below 12.32volt
this was the hard lessen that i learned. If batt voltage drops below 12.00volts , the solenoid is not going to be strong enough to pull plunger all the way down ! Until i checked these older batt's under load , i was convinced that a batt that holds a charge idle,sitting around if fine . Not true ,i would check battery if you own a multi-meter , to eliminate this and then move on if its not that .
solenoids do get weak after so many years ,but before you condemn one ,make sure battery is not to blame . that's what happened to me. Thought it was solenoid ,wound up just being a failing battery