12 volt battery connections

Hi, Get your hands on a Voltmeter, or ask your dad for one. Then find out if your battery gives out still 12 V or more. You do this by connecting one of de negative leads with the com of the meter and the positive with the positive from the meter do this for all 4 combinations (naturaly) ... By this time you will have found out if you need to use all four leads from the battry or not..... and if the battery is any good .

ps sorry for any typo's I normaly speak Dutch "Brett Cummins" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

Hey! Thank's for the response! I actually have a voltmeter, because I'm into model railroading. I wired it like you said and set the meter's dial to 20 DC volts. I get a reading of about 2.80. For a 12 volt battery, I'm assuming that it should read 12. Is the battery almost dead, or am I reading this wrong? Thanks again!

You could have potentially up to 6 readings. Label the leads, say, A, B, C, and D. You can put the meter across AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, or CD, and will have to observe polarity while doing it.

ixTell us those se readings, and it will tell us a lot more about the battery.

Cheers! Rich

I expect that a rechargeable battery 8 - 10 years old will be useless after all these years. It will certainly be almost fully discharged by now, and probably won't hold a charge if you try to recharge it.