KuroNeko

ok so, i just got the 86 and found out that the battery drains after awhile, its not a very quick drain, it will start the engine a few times then its dead, anyone know what i should look for that would cause this? i have to go over the engine anyways so a few pointers will help.

BLKIROCZ87

check for a short.. disconnect the neg on batt and put a light tester between the neg cable and batt, and shut interior lights off or just take bulb out, the light tester should not be lit but if you have a short it will. So then just remove 1 fuse at a time till light shuts off, then you can narrow it down to what is draining your battery.. hope this helps you.

KuroNeko

ok ill try that

KuroNeko

ok, sorry for the double post, but i decided to check the fuses without doing the battery thing as you said (i hate batterys) and my ign/ecm fuse was toast along with the ac/heat fuse

red rock

iTrader: (2)

Do you have an amp in the stereo? They draw a lot of power even when their off. If your blowing fuses, your going to ground somewhere in the wiring.

KuroNeko

the car is still a finishing project, and i dont have the center console pod for the a/c radio so theres no radio right now XD

GreenCamaro13

you might want to check the alternator. i had a similar problem. the problem was the alternators brush was chipped. i took it to autozone before knowing what was wrong and it was tested good but the reason was that it had just enough power to become ok but when it was connected and all the stuff that needed powered pushed in the power coming from the one that wasnt chipped wasnt good enough. just a suggestion. now my car runs like a charm

BLKIROCZ87

def another thing to check as "GreenCamaro13" said...

Thirdgenlove

How did you find out your brush was chipped? Because I'm having the same issue it's testing good but it's not charging the battery enough

GreenCamaro13

what you do is take it to any shop, even scraps chops and ask them if they will remove it, mine got done free and ask them if you can get a used one. mine was for a ford taurus. you need a power tool to remove and replace because it needs alot of torque. and the way you can tell is when you remove the chip you will see more then likely 2 little metal things sticking out side by side and they must be even. mine was uneven, half the right was missing on mine though. and they put a used one for 20 dollars and i could tell the difference right away. any help? i can post pics if needed

GreenCamaro13

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...-dyi-info.html

This Thread i Posted Might help You Both.

TreeFiddy

Kuroneko:

Stop all the guess work, and proceed with some diagnosis along the lines of what Blkiroc suggested.

But first - get a cheap $10 multimeter. Verify that the alt is charging - measure at the batt terminals - 12V for not started, 14V for running.

If charging ok, the pull the neg battery cable, and put the meter on amps range between the cable and batt post to check what the stand-by current drain is.

If it's more than a few milliamps, you've got a full or partial short somewhere. Pull fuses one by one and check the meter each time, see if you can make it go away.

Those fuses you've already found blown won't be the cause of the drain (or it would have stopped already), but does indicate you've got an electrical system in poor shape that could use a little love. Though in particular, if the ecm fuse is blown, how is it starting? Has the ecm been removed?

KuroNeko

i dont know honestly how the engine works after i finnally got to looking at everything, the sparkplugs looked like they were in the engine for 20 yrs. and there are plugs every where that have no place to go, although a few may be for the a/c which is in the trunk, which ive lived with out a/c for so long im not even bothering with hooking it up (the guy never got around to it but its ready to go) since i have working windows and t-tops, but i dont know if its the alternator, since it drains while its just sitting there (killed the battery from the 92 camaro which was bad since thats our only good car right now) but after it was running it held a bit of a charge so i think it still may be good but ill have someone check it out

spr250

Don't forget to test the battery. I've had batteries that took charge when running but when turned off they would slowly lose charge. Replaced the batteries and good to go. Just because the battery shows 12V, do a load test I've tested and found many dead batteries that way.

KuroNeko

i used the battery out of our 92 camaro which is driven everyday so its not the battery

GreenCamaro13

yes, the car will hold a charge because one of the brushes is alright but the otherone might be damaged so that might be leading to the problem. think of it this way. you have a cd player with 2 batteries, one good and one almost dead. the cd player turns on but will die after a minute of two because of uneven charge and not enough power to run the cd player. get what i mean? but i hope you find the solution man!