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my battery has been going dead on my 69 vette. I can charge the battery and let the car set for 2 or 3 days and its dead as a door nail. there are no lights on or radio on, I took the battery to the parts shop and they put it on their tester and said the battery tests good, but even though it tested good they said it very well could be a bad cell.
the guy in the shop said it's possible that the voltage regulator is bad and could be draining the battery while the car sets?
the only thing I know to do is I've set the battery on my bench with a full charge and will wait a few days to see if it drains down which would tell me its a bad cell.
my question is if the battery doesn't drain down setting on my bench then what could be draining it down when setting in the car.
Put battery back in car, leave one end disconnected and put meter in circuit to see if it is drawing current with nothing turned on. It it is, then start pulling fuses to find the circuit with the short or current draw.
A good battery tester should have been able to identify a weak cell during a simulated load test.
check if there is any current draw when installed in the car. I had a similar problem on mine and tracked it down to the light in the center storage compartment being on because the lid did not close completely.
Does your clock work ?, if so, how old is your battery. My 69, started every time all the time after weeks of setting,as soon as I fixed my clock and it started working the battery would be dead every 4Th day, the battery is 10 years old, possible week battery, or current draw, as said before by ru7376vettes disconnect battery lead and use a meter to check for a draw, pull fuses until you find the circuit that is the culprit,then use the 69 wiring diagram to search out the possibilities in that circuit for your short. good luck.
...what could be draining it down when setting in the car...
Almost anything. We had the same slow drain problem on my fiancee's 96. Could not find the source. I was leaving the garage one evening after dark. As I flipped off the lights, I just happened to catch an odd faint glow in her 96. Passenger's vanity mirror light was on which we had not seen during daylight searching.
Put a cut off switch on your battery. That will eliminate the drain.