Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild
First of all TOM! Glad you are on the mend! I have missed you around here.. Behave yourself and follow the instructions the folks from P/T give you and you should end up 100%.. Just think.. With this 'forced' practice, you may end up being ambidextrous and learn how to gain a stroke when changing hands!
Batteries: When my father and I did a lot of marine wiring we used to use Surette batteries from Canada. They were very heavy duty lead acid batteries and size for size, out weighed their competition by a good deal. An 8D was about all I could muster as a youngster!
Bert-Man is correct. AGM (matt-glass) batteries are the way to go today. They will survive a great deal of abuse and still survive. Like being discharged nearly 100% and left out in very cold weather at the same time and will still recover and recharge fully. Try that with a regular lead-acid battery and you might as well just recycle it. It will never completely recover and fully recharge.
I have a heavy duty commercial group 31 AGM battery for the 'house' battery in my boat . (Runs everything except starting the engine - that battery is separate.) The damn thing cost me $235 and weighs nearly 70 pounds! I can operate my trolling motor all day long without any concern..
By the way, anybody out there who has a boat and wants to install an additional battery and keep the starting battery separate, but still be able to recharge it with the single alternator in their engine, drop me a line. I can tell you how to do it. Blue Seas makes an Automatic Charging Relay (ACR) that will isolate the two batteries electrically, yet allow them to be recharged from a single source. (Including a single circuit battery charger, saving money when you buy a new charger.) It makes for a very reliable electrical system.
Roger