Skil 2580

[lambge]

My son was dissabled about 6 months ago, and I am trying to get his tools in order for his still-too-young son. He has a Skil2580, along with two 14.4 Volt battery packs, and a model 92980 Charger, unused for about 6 months. I attached the charger to one of the packs, and did not get a red-LED indicator of charging. Same with the second pack.

Using a known-to-be-good VOM, I get readings of about 4 volts on either battery pack. The charger, when plugged into 110V, gives a momentary reading of slightly under a volt, and then drops back to almost zero, as though there was some capacitance in the circut.

I know that the voltage on the ni-cad packs is probably too low for recovery, but wonder whether the charger is non-operational. .

I am in my son's house at the moment, and do not have access to my own versitile chargers.

Should I order a new charger, and then see about replacing the individual ni-cad cells?

Thanks

Gordon

[Dale]

Your charger is definitely bad. It should put out about 16 volts. Usually a bad battery on these cheaper tool will cause the charger to burn up. It doesn't tell the charger when to stop charging. And keeps charging till the transformer burns up.

Skil 2580 Parts List and Diagram - TYPE 1 (F012258002) : eReplacementparts.com