ok i know i need a larger alternator. the 63 is just not cutting it with my sound system and its old. now my question is when the engine is off the batt will read 12.34.... 10min later its at 12.28(alternator reading is .01 lower than batt with engine off) i dont know why. how can i track down whats doing this??? i need to put back the ground strap from the back of the cylinderhead to the firewall, could this do it? i did have to cut some sensors off and stuff. i just taped up the wires and tucked them away. was this right? im really baffled i have a voltmeter so just give me some directions and i can find out why my battery is draining. THANKS!!!

 

ok i woke up checked it and now it reads 12.05 at the battery please i need help.

 

come on.

 

ok my battery went completely dead after a few days of no use....something is draining it and i dont know what to do. PLEASE SOMEONE who knows what to do help me. i converted to a carbed 350 and i cut sensors and some wires at the ecu and stuff....is there some wat to find out whats draining the batt!!!!?!?!?!?!? PLEASE HELP!!

 

Is it the battery itself that just can't hold a charge? Also the alt. voltage is lower than the battery due to a voltage drop from the wire running to the alt. Hook up your ammeter and start pulling fuses and see if it drops the draw. You should have less than 50mA with the car off and the doors closed.

 

k im gonna try and do that tomorrow. i cut some wires off the ecm when i swapped engines. what should i have done with the chopped wire? could i just tape it up?

 

Yeah just tape it off. The #1 rule is never cut a harness... too late. You just pissed off every future owner of that car .

 

eh...im never gonna sell it. too much time and money now.

 

I said that about my Harley-Davidson...oops it is for sale. Never thought it would happen but things change now and then. Of course having a tank slapper toss me of my crotch rocket at 70 had something to do with the decision.

 

ok, so i bought a new battery cause my old one was bad. so i got an optima yellowtop, now after driving the car for a while it will read....12.8 or something and then about a day + later it'll read 12.15 or so. So i still have something draining my battery. when i try to do the parasitic loss or w/e test it just sparks i get a 3sec reading of like 8. i know thats the other stuff getting powered up. and then it doesnt read anything. any advice anyone?

 

Is your meter set properly? 8A is everything powering up, but after that you should see a draw of less than .050 A, so that can easily be overlooked.

 

ok i got it figured out. it was pulling 1.12a!!!! and i found out it was the electronic choke on my carb! so i unplugged it and it dropped to .02-.03a and stayed right there! i have to rewire the electronic choke somehow, right now its just unplugged so its temp fix. so yea. thats good news. and im getting a 100amp alternator in a few days!

 

It sounds to me like you had your carburetor choke wired to a constantly hot source.

You want it to be powered only when your car is running.

I don't know if you were originally carbed or not, but there is two things you can do to fix this;

1) Find your original choke wire, and connect to this.

2) Re-wire your choke's positive (+) wire to a wire that is only hot at key on. If you still have a lot of the original wiring, this should be fairly easy with a test light. With the key on the run position, ground your light, and touch a lot of wires. When you find one that lights your tester, turn the key off and try again, if it's off now - try this wire.

I'm sure someone will comment further, and a bit more precisely than this, but I know how you feel, my car is an electrical nightmare!

Hope this at least helps for the time being!
Good luck!

-Chris