If you don't find any corrosion
around the battery terminals, take the battery down to the parts store and have them load test it.
Not exact matches
Note: the structure of the
battery casing is completely sound with no signs of obvious damage from charging (unless you count the dry residue
around the
terminals), and I have always kept the cells topped with distiller water.
If you clean
around one
terminal and use a meter to measure current between the clean
terminal and the dirty area on the top of the
battery you might be able to see if that was the problem.
It could also be that it isn't exactly the
battery terminals which are at fault, but by banging
around on them you reconnected whatever is the problem.
We create a closed - loop circuit (because that's what we have always done) where the current flows
around the circuit, reaches the other
battery terminal and immediately destroys the
battery's «dipole».