JP>  I have a Skil Portable drill with two battery paks,
 JP> (Skil No.92927 12 volt Super Power Pak).
 JP> One works fine but the other puts out only 8.5 Volts
 JP> after charging.
 JP>   I've discharged it several times down to about 3 volts
 JP> and recharged it with no effect.One or more of the "C"
 JP> batteries was defective.
 JP>   After about 6 months,I decided to see what was in it.I
 JP> took it down to my table saw and carefully cut off one side
 JP> about 1/16" at a time until I had an opening.Then I used a
 JP> screwdriver to open it all the way up.The cover came apart very
 JP> easily and exposed the whole assembly.
 JP>   Inside I see 10 cardboard covered " C " batteries,two sets
 JP> of two and one set of 6. A voltmeter check shows no voltage in
 JP> any.Must have all discharged over 6 months.I'll try to find the
 JP> defective batteries and cut the welded flat strips to give me sets
 JP> of 2 batteries for flashlights.
 
   When I took apart the cells,I found some salts on the plus terminals 
   of ALL the cells.I pulled off the flat welded strips and saw 3 or 4 
   pins  sticking out of + and - ends.I made a hole in the case on one 
   and tossed this.Then flattened the pins(probaly from the welding step.
   Then I washed off the salts and dried them and  charged them in a 
   GE BC8B battery charger (very versatile) .The charger brackets had 
   springs for the these shorter NiCads but the + terminal was bisected.
   So I cut some 2" pieces of 1/4" copper tubing as shims.Worked ok.
   I should have charged the battery pack up first before I took it 
   apart so I could pick out the bad cells faster.
 
   Out of the 12 cells,I salvaged seven.After charging,I let them sit
   for a while then checked the voltage.Three had lost charge overnight.
   When recharged again,they were ok.
   The cardboard cases are esential to insulate the case during charging
   but they kept slipping off.A dab of rubber cement inside fixed that.
 
   I'm begining to wonder if peeling off the welded metal strips was a 
   good idea.The integrity of the metal case could be compromised and
   shorten the useful life of the cell.I could have used a sheet metal
   scissors or tool to trim it to an acceptable size.
   
   I tested two cells in a flashlight and they worked fine.In this light
   the spring at the bottom was high enough for good contact.
   If not,I could make a coil of 1/8 " copper tubing as a washer.
 
 JP>   I also found an RC parallel circuit in the main leads.
 JP> The capacitor is a small metal can about 1/4" by 3/16" by 
 JP> 3/4" long.The writing says "PEPI C " and "
26H+046G ".
 JP> The resistor was a common tubular clay type ,about 1/4 Watt,
 JP> with color bands that I couldn't read very well but measured 
 JP> 0.4 ohms on my digital meter.  I wonder why that was in there.
 
    Just a thought,I checked the resistor with reversed ohmeter leads
 and it was open.It was a diode,I guess to prevent discharging if the
 battery pack charger was switched off.      
 
 

--- Maximus 2.02