hey i switched motors from a tbi 305 to a carbed 350 and now my battery keeps going dead, is there something i should disconnect from my starter or what do you think is draining it, any suggestions are appreciated and i mean anything
thanx

 

I don't know if the same situation applies to your car but I recently had a major battery drain also. I finally tracked it down to a bad starter that was oil soaked and filled with all kinds of metal shaving, brushes shot, contacts loose, and generally FUBAR. Replaced that and have not had any more problems an am keeping fingers crossed.

 

Cig lighter socket and the rear defog are also other parisitic sources I have experenced. Check them too.

Disconnect positive battery terminal, put a multimeter in line in the amp setting and start pulling fuses till you find which one drops it signifiganty.

 

thanks ill try thos i know its not my starter because it is less than a week or two old and i had the problem before i got my new one but feel free to keep posting sugestions
thanx

 

My battery recently discharged somehow, over a 48hr period.
I believe my car is experiencing a parasitic drain from the alternator. When I was under the hood tinkering around with my fan switch wiring today, I could hear a faint humming sound coming directly from the alternator. The odd thing is, that my meter (set to 10A) is only reading a draw of .01
To me, this would seem too small to have discharged a battery in 48hrs, unless it was nearly drained in the first place...

 

For reference, more than .05 A is considered parasitic draw (50mA).

 

Yeah, I don't think you have much of a draw there, jconrad...but the noise from your alternator sounds neat. Just for fun I went outside to have a listen to mine. Too much wind to hear well.

Maybe alt is not correctly recharging batt?

 

Yeah good point and all...then i guess i just need to install a new battery because it was dead again today....we'll see what happens tomorrow with the new battery installed

 

jconrad,

What ever happened with this? Did you get it sorted?

 

Man, I'm sorry I never posted a follow-up...
Well I went out and bought an Optima redtop from Pep Boys. My other battery was over 5 years old anyway, so I felt that I'd gotten my money's worth from it...lol
My drain wound up coming from having the fan wired straight to the battery, in true jury-rigger's fashion. I did this hack-job when my fan relay took a dump on me that day, driving in stop-and-go city traffic. It kept me from overheating until I got home, but I guess the draw on the battery was too much, and did not let the old guy fully recharge.

Now with the new battery, the faulty relay replaced, and the wiring returned to my 1st configuration (manual fan switch), all seems well. Oh yeah, just recently I came out again to find my battery dead. When I put the jump pack on it, my fuel pump relay clicked over and started running the pump...the funny thing is the ignition key was still in my pocket. So after replacing that relay too, now it seems ok. I can't wait to see what relay is going to fail next. You just gotta love the quality of today's parts. Yay Corporate America!!

 

Another option on battery drain - fuel pump. On my TBI cars, the fuel pump is wired directly to the battery + terminal via the Oil Pressure Sending Unit (OPSU).

I had the OPSU go bad - allowing the fuel pump to constantly run, even when key was out of car. My battery died every 2-3 days, and it drove me crazy until I found it by shear luck - I walked past the car at 3am one night, when all was deadly quiet in the 'hood, and heard the pump running (it's rarely quiet since I'm close to a major roadway). OPSU was the culprit. Open those hatches and lay that ear on the hump (late at night) when battery mysteriously goes dead.

 

Hey thanks, I hadn't even thought of that being a possibility. I never knew it was wired up direct like that, I just figured it would still run through the relay. So at least if it does happen again, i'll have something else to look at.

 

What model# red top did you get?

 

And the Optima batteries are not to be beat. I had one in another car. Busted the alternator belt late at night 2 hours from home. I just kept on driving, lights & radio just like normal - that Optima got me home, and still had plenty charge to get started the next day, get me to the parts store for a new belt, and get home for the install. I doubt many batteries would run the lights, radio, and juice the plugs for that long - let alone restart the next day.

 

How are our cars when it comes to voltage regulators ? Asking since my wife's car (ugghhh old beat up '89 SAAB drained the battery so bad that I couldn't drive more than two blocks)

 

I know it was the only one I saw that had side terminal and top post also(those top posts are great for jumps)..
Lemme see if I can find the reciept....
...Optima75/35...red75/35...36 month free replace...84 month prorated warranty

 

Thanks......