[Al Skierkiewicz]

JDL,
Instantaneous drops of 2 volts signal a defective cell. Check the archives for one of my previous posts on CBA curves showing several of these types of failures. Although some of the batteries were pretty old at the time, most drops on new batteries are due to mishandling. Often dropped from a distance onto one corner. My intuition tells me that several plates break off the connector plate within the cell resulting in a short across some or all of the cell.