Canon Nicad pack rebuilding

I recently bought a motordrive and high power nicad pack FN for my new F-1. The pack does take a charge, but it doesn't last for very long, so I suspect the nicad cells inside are at the end of their life.

When I shake the pack, I can hear things moving inside, so I suspect that its a set of discrete cells inside. Has anyone taken one of these packs apart and rebuilt it?

I've rebuilt a Quantum battery pack before and that was easy, so I'm wondering if there is any trick to pulling apart the nicad pack?

ideas

While I have not seen this particular unit, here is my go approach at openning what appear to be 'sealed' units.

Gently pry off all labels/affixed plates. Frequently there are screws hidden under them. Once screws are out, freqently two parts can be separated to get inside.

Use an Xacto knife blade to look and prod carefully along the edges/cracks to figure which ones we once two, and have been subsequnently glued together. Try prying gently first.

If all else fails, you have found the seam, but it is not openning: make a loose fitting form to allow the item to be squeezed diagonally along the glued surface in a vise. The amount of compression on the item as a whole is small, but the force along the glued edge can be substantial enough to 'pop' a seam. You then gently advance the separation from there.

I rebuild Olympus packs for their motor drives and am now finding it difficult to buy individual nicad cells in the 1/3A size. Some nicad sizes are just not popular anymore and my only options are becoming going direct with a chinese manufacturer where I have to buy hundred's at a time (there is NO market for that). Olympus was selling replacement clusters, but the last few I got were leaking and already had dead cells. If you have to build your own cluster , you might want to consider doing it with NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) cells which don't suffer from memory problems when recharged after only a little use. John, www.zuiko.com

Thanks, I found a guy who is skilled in electronics who figures it will be no problem to rebuild it for me. I'm trading his his services for a transmission I've got in the corner of the garage.

I'm pretty sure you can find 1/3AA batteries very easily on ebay, or online. I've bought them before for an RC plane, and had no issues... For example, http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1016 and http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=140-181

As a last resort I've found that nicads can be jolted back into service with a surge of juice much higher than the rated charge voltage. They get a crystal boundary from partial charges that can be broken down if carefully manipulated. I tried it with a 6 volt pack with problems, juiced it for a second or two with a 12 volt battery and it broke through and took a full charge and held it well. Gotta be careful of the heat buildup, hold it in your hand and do a quick disconnect when you feel the heat in the battery.

I've had the best luck with taking my battery packs to Batteries Plus. They've serviced every kind of battery pack I've taken to them with batteries that last longer & usually have a better power rating than the originals.

John