Well, I got the vette back from the trans shop this morning.
New clutch, pilot bearing, resurfaced flywheel and it turns out that whoever installed the trans did a terible job with the clutch linkage. The geometry was all messed up and was not allowing it to engage properly. But it is all fixed and shifts great now.

Anyways, when I picked it up, the battery was dead and they told me that it wouldn't hold a charge while it was there. It had seemed to be working fine prior to that, but hadn't been driven for several months (although I did start it periodically).
As I was driving home, I noticed that the ammeter was pegged all of the time (it did drop a little when at idle, but jumped back up as the rpm's increased).

I took the battery to Autozone, but they said it seemed to be fine so I reinstalled it making sure the cables were nice and snug.

Also, and this may be unrelated, when I went to get it inspected the wipers would not work. The wiper door pops up, but the wipers just wouldn't move.
At this point I had to get to work, so I didn't get a chance to check fuses ot anything.

Any ideas where to begin looking when I get home tonite?

thanks,
Scott

 

One thought -

There's a switch just under the steering column (big round one in center). Make sure that is on because it turns power off to the wipers.

 

have you added any extra electrical parts that add to the system load? If not, try putting your battery on a charger. It is normal for voltmeters to show little charge at idle with high output and externally regulated alternators.

 

Z-man- good call. with all the work, someone knocked one of the wires loose. I plugged it in and it works great. I always forget that damn thing is there!

isosceles- no, I haven't added anything, but I just took the alternator off and I'm going to autozone to get it tested