Positive Battery Cable is Grounding out
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 85
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From: Newport News Va
Positive Battery Cable is Grounding out
OK,
So I have an 89, I replaced the battery after letting it sit for a few weeks (the battery was tested at a shop and had a bad cell). Drove the car a few days....let it sit a few more days....dead battery. When I say dead, I mean I disconnected the cables from the battery (both of them) and the battery reads around 1 volt. So being the genius that I am, I now understand something must be wrong with the car. I checked for continuity in a few spots, just looking around, and discovered that I have continuity between the positive and negative cables, while they are both disconnected. Great...so i went to the battery distribution block behind the battery, and was going to pull all the positive ones out to find the short....no deal, there's a nut that's stripped and won't let me do it.
Any ideas on how I can fix this problem?
By the way, that bolt is rusted, so perhaps that's part of my problem?
So I have an 89, I replaced the battery after letting it sit for a few weeks (the battery was tested at a shop and had a bad cell). Drove the car a few days....let it sit a few more days....dead battery. When I say dead, I mean I disconnected the cables from the battery (both of them) and the battery reads around 1 volt. So being the genius that I am, I now understand something must be wrong with the car. I checked for continuity in a few spots, just looking around, and discovered that I have continuity between the positive and negative cables, while they are both disconnected. Great...so i went to the battery distribution block behind the battery, and was going to pull all the positive ones out to find the short....no deal, there's a nut that's stripped and won't let me do it.
Any ideas on how I can fix this problem?
By the way, that bolt is rusted, so perhaps that's part of my problem?
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 9,036
Likes: 13
From: Edmonton AB
How much of a current value are you seeing?
One approach mentioned in the past is to pull fuses?
The distribution block - do you mean the stud in the
piece of bakelite below the battery? Where the fusible
links lead away from? If so, my vote is that you treat
that with respect and replace it if you have any
concerns about it.
I do not KNOW this, but I suspect that C4 fires originating
in the area of the battery were caused by that part breaking
and creating a direct short to ground.
.
One approach mentioned in the past is to pull fuses?
The distribution block - do you mean the stud in the
piece of bakelite below the battery? Where the fusible
links lead away from? If so, my vote is that you treat
that with respect and replace it if you have any
concerns about it.
I do not KNOW this, but I suspect that C4 fires originating
in the area of the battery were caused by that part breaking
and creating a direct short to ground.
.
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
An ohmeter across the battery cables isn't necessarily conclusive, but the dead battery in a few days sure is. Charge the battery up with a battery charger and then connect the positve cable. Connect your VOM set on amps between the neg battery terminal and the negative cable. When the courtesy lights time out, switch to lower full scale current and measure the leakage current. GM says leakage shouldn't be more than 50 milliamps, my 87 measures 27 ma. At night with the battery cables connected, look for the underhood lights, vanity mirror lights, door map lights, rearview mirror map light and center console light. All should be off. Do you have a radar detector, aftermarket alarm, aftermarket radio or audio amplifier? Check em. Pull the courtesy light fuse and watch the ammeter while you pull fuses one at a time. A drop in current will show what circuit you need to look at. The bolt behind your battery has 8 wires attached all with fusible links and if fuses don't show the leakage, these wires need to be removed one at a time while watching the ammeter since one may have excessive leakage. You will need to remove the nut from the stripped bolt and clean all the lugs and the bolt. All electrical connections need to be bright and tight.
Drifting
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,314
Likes: 1
From: Chicago Illinois
Check your vanity mirrors . I had the same problem and it wound up the vanity mirror was on and I did not know because the flap on it was up. Also once I had a bad alarm system which drained my battery.
