SLCguy - you are probably right; I might end up doing just that.

Put the black lead in the bottom hole marked COM. Put the red lead in the middle hole marked V/ohm/mA. Set the knob on DCV 200. Put one lead on each output wire. You SHOULD read a voltage (either positive or negative) of around 28V give or take. If the voltage is positive (no negative sign on the display) then you have the red lead on the positive output wire. If the display has a minus sign at the beginning, then you have the black lead on the positive output. If you read no, or little voltage then you have a paperweight.

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1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Mpolli - man, that was a great help. I found the + wire and the battery is now charging.

Funny, when I first tested it with jump wires clipped to the leads with alligator clips (each wire had another alligator clip at the other end), I placed the probes on the alligator clip at the far end. Nothing happened. When I placed the probes on the real wires coming out of the charger, bingo I got 27.4 volts. So for some reason the power will not go through my jump wires and alligator clips.

Now the charger shows a red light and it is charging. So let's see how it does. The original directions told me that it takes 24 hours to recharge the battery so this must be a really out of date tool set even though I purchased it new at Pep Boys. Good old Pep Boys.

The charge time has to do with the charger. You have a different charger now so might be much faster, or slower. Anyway, it should be charged by now...

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Well, one battery fully charged and one charging. The charger starts with a weak blinking red light, then the light gets stronger but continues to blink. Finally the green light comes on and the battery is (theoretically) fully charged. I tried the battery and it works fine.

Took about 24 hours for the first battery over three days because I was afraid to go to bed at night and leave it charging. Think it is safe now so I will look for the green light about 10AM tomorrow.

Thanks for all the help. Especially to Mpolli for finding the charger on fleabay.

Pic attached.

Moderator you can terminate this thread if you like. Great forum!

Attached Thumbnails

 

Very wise for such an experiment. If it was me I would also check the voltage when it is connected to the battery, both when starting with a discharged battery and also after it has charged. As long as it never goes above 27.4V then you shouldn't have any issues.

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

I checked the fully charged battery and it reads 18.5; thought it would be close to 24?? Checked the battery now being charged; it reads between 5.8 and 6.2 while the charger is still plugged into the wall outlet. Guess this means that it is charging slowly and will finally get up to 24 (or maybe 18.5) when fully charged?

When I checked the charger unloaded and plugged into the wall outlet, it read something like 28. But now while it is actually charging the battery it is only putting out 5.8-6.2.

If I had it in front of me I could trouble shoot it. Hard to do over the internet. You could have bad batteries or a bad charger. Does the charger have some current output rating labelled on it, like 500mA or 1A or something like that? Does the battery get hot when being charged? It would be helpful if you could find the manual for the charger online somewhere.

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

It is the electric scooter charger that you found on eBay.
Qili Power, Class 2 Charger Model QL-09005-B2401500H.
Input AC 100-120V 50/60Hz 1.5 A
Output 24V 1500 mA
Charger only 12V Lead-acid Rechargeable Batteries, other type of batteries may burst causing injury to persons damager (Made in China).
Green - charged OK
Red - charging

Testing the posts of the battery now charging, I get 5.9-7.1 so it is going up some. The other battery that charged up to green but read 18 instead of 24 was only very, very slightly warm. The original specs on the battery said it took a full 24 hours for each recharge.

Seems like the charger is bad. It should put out an amp and a half, and a lot more than 6 or 7 volts. I would be curious how much current it is actually delivering. Sounds like very little.

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

When I tested the charger leads before hooking it up to the battery, it showed 28. Now that it is actually hooked up and charging the battery, I get a reading of 6.6-7.7; checked it this AM. Sounds more like a trickle charger.

I just unhooked it and tested the leads again; reads 27.8 again. Maybe this is the way it is supposed to work.

The lead acid batteries it's designed to charge are sealed, so they cannot take a fast charge rate. A quickly charged lead-acid battery gives off hydrogen gas in large amounts, and a sealed one could explode if charged too quickly.
If you want to experiment, make me an offer on my Craftsman charger. It does up to 24v, I have the horrific 14.4v drill batteries though so it's all getting replaced early next year.

Welder - I will keep that in mind. So far I may be OK with the electric scooter charger.