Any one have any suggestions. If I drive it everyday it is fine but if it sits all day the next day it is dead. New starter, Alt, Batt. I am at a loss.
Thanks, Gary

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1990 Formula 350

 

You need to hook up a meter to your battery to see if you have any drains. Anyhing over .5 amps should be addressed.

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1989 IROC-Z 5.7L
NOS 150HP kit
ProBuilt 700R4, PI Vigilante 2800 stall lockup
Baer Brakes 12" Sport System

 

Just a thought check and see if the battery is bad.

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************************
91 z-28 305 700R4
3.73 gears out back
T-Tops and Black all over.

 

With the car running take off the battery cable (positive) and see if the car continues to run. If it does eliminate Alt. problem. I had this same problem in the past and it usually is a bad cell in the battery(replace) or a voltage drain from some short somewhere( a real pain in the a...). Just a few thoughts.

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86 Camaro Black SS Coupe, T Tops, Flowmaster, Custom Paint, Dunlop Road Kings S/R tires, Wheel Country Directional Chrome Wheels, New Leather seats, new carpet and headliner, complete front end suspension rebuild, new Valve seals, and more mods to come
http://www.angelfire.com/sports/niterider/86camaro.html
Morgan_Andre@hotmail.com

 

Here's a silly suggestion, but it solved my problem. Check and make sure your light in the hatch is off. My pressure switch was broken, and I had the shade pulled, and the battery would die every other day. It was a relatively new battery so I didn't suspect that. Then one night I noticed a slight glow from under the shade. Ta-da. With the broken pressure switch, the switch on the light had been turned on and was draining the battery. Check that or any other drains you could possibly have.

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'84 Z28 w/ T-tops, 420HP Stroked 383, Trick Flow aluminum heads, Tremec 5 speed, 3.73 posi rear, Edelbrock 750 cfm carb, Dual Snorkel air cleaner w/ K&N filter, Edelbrock headers & 3" exhaust, Edelbrock Strut Tower Brace, Hotchkis LCA's and Panhard Rod, there is much suspension work to come.

1979 Corvette - Black/Black - 350 CI L82 w/ MM4 close ratio 4 speed manual

"Smoke 'em if you got 'em"

 

thanks guys. The Batt., Alt., and starter are all new. So I am leaning towards something else. Last time it was my radio, it is aftermarket but I just wired the radio straight to the battery and removed the ARC fuse. That worked for a while and now I am back were I started. If it just sits overnight now it is dead. To check the drain on the car you remove the positive cable and ground the other end on the car?
Thanks again, Gary

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1990 Formula 350
13.8 @ 98 MPH 1/4

 

OK, first, DO NOT remove the battery with the engine running. You could damage to alternator. To see if the alternator is charging, idle the engine with no accessories running and measure the voltage across the battery. It should be about 14 volts. Now to check for a current drain. With the engine off, and all accessories including interior lights, underhood lights, etc. off, disconnect the positive battery cable and hook up an amp meter in line with the positive battery cable and the positive battery terminal. If there is more than .5 amps, then you have something draining your battery. To find out what it is, pull one fuse at a time until the drain goes away. That will tell you what circuit it's on. You should be able to find it from there.

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89 Transam GTA, 350TPI, auto, 3.27 rear, dual cats, gray.
Magnaflow cat-back,
K&N open element,
Best E.T. 14.63@95mph

 

I agree with the post above this. I have always said to never disconnect the battery when the car is running - NEVER, and gave a fairly long explanation to back up this statement. Anyone that knows how an automotive electrical system works will (should) know this. I made this post here: https://www.thirdgen.org/messgboard/...ML/001135.html.

I gave up trying to advise people not to do this to test the alternator. I'm tired of "beating this dead horse to death". I know, so-and-so does it all the time and never had a problem, therefore, it is not a problem... To that all I can say is you have been very fortunate - and I could comment on an electronic component being degraded instead of being destroyed, which means that its life will be shortened; Murphys law states that this component will now fail when you most need the car, while it's raining hard and stuck in rush hour. I wouldn't risk it on my car.

Back to your problem. The above post stated to measure the current draw when the car is off (all lights off/key out), and the current draw should be a lot less than one ampere, more like 200-400mA (0.2 - 0.4 ampere). If you don't have an ampmeter to measure the current draw (this is the proper way), you can get an idea by disconnecting a battery cable from the battery. A small spark equals a little load, a large spark equals a large load (current draw). Your job is to determine how big a spark is too big. You could try disconnecting everything that is suppose to draw current when the car is off (like the ECM, alarm and radio memory function). With those things disconnected, you should probably not have anything drawing current, or no spark at all when re-connecting a battery cable to the battery.

The current that is always there, even with the car off (key out) is properly called parasitic load, which is the cumulative load produced by all the electrical items in a car (clocks, computers, radio [memory], alarms and so forth). This load is typically between 20-200mA (0.02 - 0.2 amperes).

Leaving your headlights "on" will normally discharge a fully charged battery (with 90 minutes of reserve capacity) in 2-6 hours.

The best way to test, as mentioned above is with an ampmeter. If the parasitic load is prematurely discharging your battery, try removing all the fuses. If the battery does not become discharged, you know that something a fuse is passing current to is the culprit. You could try putting one fuse back at a time to isolate the problem (or use the "spark" method described above or, preferably, the ammeter method).

By the way, just because a battery is "new" does not mean that a battery is good. If a battery has been sitting for more than six months before being sold, it will probably have started to sulfate. This is when the lead sulfate cannot be converted back to a charged material, and is created when a discharged battery stands for a long time or from excessive water loss. Look at the date code on the battery before buying it.

A battery can fail prematurely for many reasons, such as a loss of electrolyte, a lot of deep discharges, using the wrong battery, such as an undersized battery, undercharging, freezing, too much vibration (you do have a hold down clamp, don't you?), etc.......

[This message has been edited by Stuart Moss (edited July 20, 2001).]

 

Check for a light in the console/glove box.

 

I thought of that too about the battery.And I have the battery held down by the original clamp. Does anyone know everything that would be pulling on the battery with the car off. As Stuart mentioned the alarm, ecm, radio. Today I disconnected everything like my alarm, amps, radio, rear hatch light, console light, and interior lights. So we will see what happens in the morning.
Thanks Guys,
Gary

 

Well, after disconnecting just the amps, and radio the car fired right up no problems.I reconnected the other lights last night because i needed them. I know the amps are not staying on because I checked to make sure. Is it possible for the Aftermarket radio i have (Nakamichi) to be pulling too much power for some reason? I have had it for close to 3 years it two different cars. It has been in the Formula for two.
Thannks, Gary

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1990 Formula 350
13.8 @ 98 MPH 1/4

[This message has been edited by 90FormulaL98 (edited July 21, 2001).]

 

DDP!!

[This message has been edited by 90FormulaL98 (edited July 21, 2001).]

 

Nice radio! "Nice" as in the best?

How did you check the amplifiers to make sure that they did not stay "on"?

[This message has been edited by Stuart Moss (edited July 21, 2001).]

 

Thanks, it has been a good one. I just looked to see if the light was on on the amp.