I just put a new alternator in my car and I put new wiring in as well, ( 8 gauge car audio cable for the ground and the positive charging lead from the alt. to the positve battery terminal)

There has to be a short somewhere. Here is what I have that is not stock that are electrical additions to the car:

Electric fuel pump ( hooked to ign.)
Air fuel gauge ( hooked to ign.)
Stereo system ( 3 amps etc)

When I jump started it yesterday, I noticed that the head lights were flickering sort of, all FOUR of them. Not brightly but I noticed it. I checked to see if the lights were left on and they wee not. The key was in the off position too.


Here are the only things that could be possible problems:

The car is no longer computerized, I took the computer out.
My headlight switch could have a short in it. ( But all four are coming on and I didn't have the high beams on) I could have a relay short of some kind.
Someone tried to steal my car last summer, they screwed up my steering column and I had to put it back together. Now sometimes when I start it up it makes a BUZZING NOISE until the alternator charges the car up past about 10 or 11 volts.
Sometimes the car will keep buzzing and the car will be running and the voltage gauge shows a steady 10 volts or less. If I rev the motor up, the buzzing will stop and the charge immediately goes up to 14.4 volts.

What do you guys think?

This is a 1984 Z-28 car with a 5 speed and all the options ( all electrical options) It had a L69 quadrajeted motor in it and now it's a new L69 with a regular carb on it.

 

You've definitely got a load somewhere that isn't turning off. Even a failed rectifier in the alternator could be draining the battery, but it would be almost against all odds to have two of them do the same thing.

The headlight phenomenon is certainly odd, and points to a serious wiring/grounding problem. I'd start by disconnecting loads one at a time while metering residual current flow from the battery (engine off). Start with the aftermarket items, like alarms and audio components. After that, you can remove fuses and breakers one at a time to help isolate the system or circuit with the problem.

 

I just checked, while I had to jump the car again today... and the only thing that is connected to the battery and not the ignition is my MSD box.

You are supposed to connect the Power wire directly to the battery right? The turn on leads for it are in the existing circuitry right?

that's the only thing I can think of! All the stereo stuff is brand new!

 

I need some help here! ANy ideas! I think I fixed it but I am not sure! What could be draining the Batt.?

 

Hook a test light up between the battery terminals. If it lights, you've got a drain. Start pulling fuses to isolate the drain. If you pull one and the light turns off, you found it. Also check the integrity of your battery cables. You'd be surprised sometimes

 

Not much any of us can do for you.... something is obviously draining the batt, you've just got to find it....

There's some other stuff that can do it too, besides fuses you can get to. A number of the power accessories, including power seats, power windows, power mirrors, rear window defog, etc. get their power from a little terminal board above the parking brake release handle. A bunch of those things get battery, not ignition.

But before you go crazy, check the obvious.... make sure your under-hood light isn't staying on, your rear cargo area light isn't on, etc. etc. Park the car somewhere really dark and see if there's light coming from anywhere.

 

Wait a second...you mean to tell me that if you put a test light between the terminals B+ and the negative on the battery it will not light up unless you have a drain?

 

Remove a batt cable and connect the test light to the cable and the now un-connected post. If the test light illuminates, leave it connected while disconnecting the aftermarket things and pulling fuses. When the light goes out, you have found the drain..

 

Wow I must be a retard.

I thought that I changed this a long time ago... but apparantly I didn't.

I had the choke for my edel 600 carb connected directly to the battery this whole time.

I disconnected each wire to the B+ terminal and my main fat wire also produced a tiny bit of light. I don't really know what it could be from...but it's such a minute bit of light. I think it's from my stereo head unit because when I disconnected the B+ wire for it the light went out. (stereo off, batt disconnected) The light seemed to blink dimmly and I think that maybe it is supposed to do that since it has one of those blinking lights for when the faceplate is off.

The CD player is hooked to the fuse panel because the stock connections didn't have any juice, well the B+ didn't anyway. The ign. turn on lead is the factory wire, but the main power lead I connected to the fusr panel at a constant source. I pulled the Cd player out to cheack for any strands of wire that could be touching metal and there were none.

What do you guys think, top shape! I Guess I'll know within the next few days! If it persists I'll rewire the deck to be sure that it's not the problem.

 

Typical standby current for a factory car with an ECM and radio/clock is about 35mA. I'm not sure what type/wattage lamp you are using, but an ammeter in line will be able to give you an exact measurement.

I'm sure the choke heater wasn't helping, either.

 

Well that would certainly do it.....

Not exactly something that all of us out here in Internet land would have guessed, for sure. But a good object lesson in rule #1 of troubleshooting something that you've worked on, but doesn't work right: Go back and check your work. It's the simple things that get you.

 

Vader, the ECM has been yanked/unhooked.

The Cd Player is a detachable face Kenwood unit. When you detach the face or simply turn the unit off, there is a red light that blinks where the eject button is, know what I am talking about? So I think this would explain the dim blinking of the test light. Do you agree?

 

Man, this totally just happened to me this weekend! I was trying desperately to figure it out, then it dawned on me! That damn choke I had hooked up "hot" at all times! DOH!

So as I read this post, I thought that also, and was gonna share, but it's good to see you got it figured out like me!