M38A1 Power Issue

[sahazzard]

Good evening all, we bought a 1955 A1 in fairly good condition, still 24 Volt, and has run great until just recently. It was parked and then somehow the key was left in the on position for probably at least 12 hours. Obviously the batteries were both dead when I found it. I pulled the batteries, charged them and hooked them back up and no power. I thought perhaps the coil or points had scorched, but they look fine. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated - the manual online TM 9 manual was no help.

[51 CJ3]

It sounds like it might be cranking so maybe a stupid question but did you test the batteries after charging? Sometimes they come back after going completely flat but sometimes they don’t. If only one went bad it will ruin the good battery.

Have you checked for spark?

I don’t have experience with 24 volt Jeeps but, if using two 12 volt batteries to make 24 volts, did they get connected in series (- to + and + to -) as required?