[C320-list] Starter Battery and Fuel Tank Question and Parts3Engines.com Warning

[Jeff Smith]

To all,

My starter batter that was purchased in 2011 is dead. The current starter battery is a car battery from Costco. It has 750 CCA. Do most people with a separate starter battery have a car battery with similar CCA? My starter battery is wired to #2 on my selector switch. However, it receives a charge even when the switch is in the 1 position. Is it supposed to do this? For some reason, I thought I would need to have the switch set to both for both to charge. This issue came to my attention because my alternator is not working and I went on the hook overnight. I drained my house bank batteries and switched to #2, whereupon I discovered 1V in my starter battery. It has probably been dead for a while.

Second question: Is it easy to remove the diesel from the fuel tank? Can I remove the shelf and suction the diesel out of the tank? Twice I have had fuel-related issues, on the water of course. My plan is to suction all of the diesel out of the tank, put some acetone in the tank and slosh it around. Suction any residual acetone and vacuum the tank. Will this work? Going forward I will add a biocide to my diesel and make sure that I keep reasonably fresh fuel in the tank.

Be careful ordering from Parts4engines.com. The company is great; however, if you order the wrong part, as I did with the alternator, it is very expensive to try to ship it back. My $135 alternator will cost me $200 if I use Fedex or UPS to send it back. I plan to stop by USPS tomorrow and see their rates.

Thanks for any help.

Jeff
’94, #121