Olustee bus

I keep having a dead battery. It seems to be losing a cell in every battery I put in. I charged the battery for a long time yesterday. ON the charger, it would only show between 40% and 60% charged.

I disconnected my negative terminal on the battery. Put an multimeter (on 50 volts) between the negative battery and negative cable. I have a reading of 12 volts. I pulled every fuse out at one time. I still get a reading of 12 volts.

I pulled every fuse and disconnected my oil gauge feed (see below), still a reading of 12 volts. I have a switch between my ignition switch and ballast resister. I turn it off and still it reads 12 volts.

If I pull the brake fuse only (which has the electric clock on it) I get a reading of 10 volts. If I put it back in, I get a reading of 12 volts.

before that, I pulled the positive cable, put a test light on the post and grounded the test light. The light came on. With that set up, I pulled every fuse in succession and the light never went off. I use an electric oil gauge hooked up to my airconditioner connection on my fuse block. I took that loose also.

Here are the facts I know about my electical system.

1.I was blowing stop light fuses all the time. I think (not real sure) I fixed that as I may have had a short with the glove box light.

2. I have a one wire alternator and the one wire goes to my voltage regulator as appropriate.

3. I have an electric oil pressure gauge. I wired the hot wire to my gauge from the place where teh power window wire hooks up on my fuse block. I have a gm sending unit as directed by the man who put the electric unit in my dash. When I crank it, the needle goes off the scale.

4. As mentioned above, I have a switch between my ignition switch and ballast resistor.

5. Finally, I would like to add that I am thoroughly pizzed at my electrical system.

Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated

Buster

Procrastination Racing

I'm getting a headache from all of this.

What is the car?


1. Check between the positive wire and the positive post with an ammeter, not a voltmeter. Pull all fuses out to start and put them in one at a time.

2. Gauges hot wires should go to a switched circuit, so when the key goes off, the power goes off. Be sure each do.

3. Stop light fuse blowing. Did it blow when you stepped on the brakes or just anytime? One trick to find out is hook a small light to the fuse so it goes out when the fuse blows. Then you can tell if it is when stepping on brakes, left turn, right turn, opening glove box, and so on.

4. I believe the alternator is hot all the time. So you will always get some current with a one wire system. A one wire system should have an internal regulator, so it shouldn't connect to an external regulator.

5. How old is the battery? If all it has been doing is deep cycling (going dead, then recharged fully), its life is shortened greatly and may be shot long before its predicted life. If it is a Wal-Mart battery, I have found those usually die 3/4 life of their warranty time.


A few pictures of where you have wired connected on the fuse block would be helpful. Often, people connect to what they think is one point and are really connected to another, as sometimes the label is above or below and is misread.

Pictures of how your alternator is connected and your gauges would also help.

65 Pro Vette

The first place I look is the altenator, I had 2 bad ones over the years, they would be fine running but would drain the battery when it is off.

Olustee bus

Thanks guys. It is a walmart battery by the way.

I think the taillights blew when I touched the breaks but not sure. I think I have that problem fixed.

I will try an ammeter.

Also, I very well may take it to a top flight electrical shop I heard of today. Of course, that could possibly run into the big bucks. I understand they have an analyzer that they hook up overnight and after that, they can pretty much tell me exactly where the short is.

I do believe that my battery may have been fully charged eventhough the charger did not say it was. I have 12 volts with a voltmeter.

I also put a lever cutoff on the negative terminal. Much better to me than the green ****.

We will see. Again, thanks

Tempus_Fugit

Disconnect the battery negative, lose the amp/voltmeter, it will only increase confusion. Put a 12v test light across it, it should not light. If it does, you have a draw.

As noted previously, remove fuses until the light goes out. If the light never goes out, try disconnecting the voltage regulator, it could also be that.

Could also be courtesy light left on, or the clock.

Battery is likely not the culprit.

This is not rocket science, something is using power.

Also, on some cars you can pull the key out with it turned all the way to the left (accy position), you want to remove the key when it is vertical. Leaving it turned to the left will drain the battery.

You just need to disconnect things until the light goes out.

Also, this is probably not a "short circuit". It is a battery drain or draw. A short circuit generally implies a direct path from power to ground that blows fuses or melts wires.

If you are as cash strapped as I am, you may not want to pay someone $80/hr to do this.

66jack

What about the headlight switch?

or

Separate the back of the fuse block and check the contacts.

Procrastination Racing

With the cables connected to the battery, connect a voltmeter to the positive and negative posts of the battery.

1. What does it read? (s/b 12 vdc)

2. Start car, let idle. What does it read?

3. Bring idle up to about 2500 - 3000 rpm. What does it read? (s/b 13 - 14 vdc)

4. What is the root problem that made you go looking in the first place? Dead battery and car wouldn't start? Lights dim? What?


Either connect an ammeter between the battery positive post and the positive cable or put a test light between them.

Several circuits do not run through the fuse block. However, they do have fusible links so that the car won't burn if they get shorted. Pull all the fuses, then check various points with a test light to see what is hot and what isn't. Then unplug or disconnect those to see if you can find the drain. If you disconnect something and the ammeter shows zero or the test light goes out, you have found the problem.

BTW, the drain could be small. A 100 milliamps will barely, if at all, show on a car type 40 amp ammeter but will drain the battery in a few days. Use an ammeter like on a multimeter that you can adjust to settings like 20 amp, 5 amp, 1 amp, and 500 milliamp scales, so you can set it low enough that a slight drain will show.

BE SURE TO keep the setting on a higher scale, and adjust down, on each check because having it too low and having a high drain could blow the ammeter.


While Wal-Mart batteries don't last all that well, they do have a decent warranty. And you can find a Wal-Mart anywhere, so if you are traveling, you have no problem as long as you have your paperwork. I have replaced several in my truck, thanks to them always dying in warranty.

Olustee bus

My reading is 12 volts not running, 13 1/2 running.

The problem I am having is dead battery and the apparent resulting dead cells.

I will check the amps. When I do the test as suggested by many I get a reading of 12 volts. I will see what amps it is, that does make more sense. Thanks

Black_Magic

Sounds like you are ready for a NEW wiring harness.

Shorts can grow and melt wire - which can cause FIREs

George

JohnZ

Is that cavity in the fuse block where you have it connected hot all the time, or only when they key is in "on" or "accessory"?

MikeM

PS. I've bought probably 40-50 Walmart batteries in the last 10-12 years. Only one failed inside warranty. Nothing wrong with Walmart batteries.

Olustee bus

Good question. I am pretty sure it is off when the key is off because you have to turn the key on to use power windows but I will for sure check that out.

I did a test of amps between my negative battery post and the battery cable and it pegged the needle. The highest I could set the thing on was 250 mA I think.

magicv8

....from the first post:

2. I have a one wire alternator and the one wire goes to my voltage regulator as appropriate.

.....from the second post (above):

4. I believe the alternator is hot all the time. So you will always get some current with a one wire system. A one wire system should have an internal regulator, so it shouldn't connect to an external regulator.

Olustee bus

I was told that in order for my amp gauge (or voltmeter) to work, I had to hook the alternator up to the external regulator. I did that but my amp gauge still does not work!

If I took the one wire off of the regulator, where do you recommend I attach it. I did have it directly to the positive post of the battery.

toddalin

This is wrong. It should be wired to the hot lead on the horn relay. You should be able to use the existing big red wire that was originally on the alternator, because that's where it should be going. That's how I've done it and my 1-wire system works fine.

Also, if you are loosing a cell/juice from your battery, you may suspect a bad diode in the alternator.

Disconnect the battery and try to charge it. If it charges, great, do it. Reconnect it, but disconnect all wires from the alternator. Does it still go down or stay charged?