when the car is running the battery is getting charged and it can run all day. if i shut the car off and disconnect the battery i can reconnect then start again. if i let the car sit for say 5-10 mins with the battery connected it will be completely dead when i go to start it again.
any thoughts guys?
check the water in the battery, also if the car has an external voltage regulator it could be sticking and should be replaced.
If you leave the battery disconnected overnight is it still good?
If you have a meter, check the battery voltage with it disconnected. Does it hold at 12.5 volts?
5 to 10 minutes is a very severe discharge rate if the battery is good.
To see if you have a battery drain, disconnect the negative battery cable. Hook a 12v test light between the negative cable and the negative battery post. If it lights you have a drain.
Make sure nothing is "on" in the car. Doors shut (dome light off), under the hood light (take the bulb out) ect.
Then it's a matter of disconnecting stuff until the light goes out.
You can get a test light at an auto parts store.
Some hardware stores have them but make sure get 12v light. They also carry electricians 110/220 volt test lights.
Don't know why an external regulator would be more apt to "stick" than an internal one.
Unless you are thinking way back to when they were a mechanical device with relays.
What if you unhook the main charge wire/wires from the alternator does it still drain the BAtt? If not sounds like maybe the alt has an internal short. Seen it more than a few times.
stuckman
I'm thinking back to the relay box that bolts to the fenderwell before they went to the internal regulator. I had similar problems with my cougar.
I think you have to go back to the 50's to find a relay type regulator.
Your external reg was the same as your internal one, technology wise.
Nope you don't have to Go back to the 50's you just gotta buy parts from the 50's! I know this I sold one just last week. We keep them in stock still pricey $63! Had to listen to the old guy tell me how you could adjust and tune those to make the gen to make the power they wanted. Then had to listen to him complain about the price of it! They do kinda look like the ones from the external regulator days in ford but those relay type are about twice as TALL. Then no plug in all hard wired to the unit and bolted down onto it.
Stuckman
Most likely a short internal to the alt. To verify, unplug the alt connector and leave the battery hooked up and give it the ten minutes to see if it will start.
To settle the voltage regulator debate, Ford used only electro-mechanical regulators thru 1977, and a few models still used them in '78... I believe Chrysler was first to use a solid state regulator in the early 70s, not real familiar with those foreign cars...
Was mid 80s before Ford started using alternators with internal regulators...
if the alternator had something wrong with it then wouldnt that prevent it from charging the car while running?
i think when i hooked everything up after the first time i had it apart i may have hooked up the cables on the alt wrong. would that have hurt anything inside of it possibly?
still workin around to getting a test light too
btw yea its not the battery i have been disconnecting it and it stays charged
ok so i disconnected the alternator and the draw is still there. When i hook it back up and run the car im geting around 14-15 volts. where do i go from here just start disconnecting things and watch the multimeter?
well i decided im going to pull the motor/trans out before winter so i can get the 2nd gear fixed and rebuild the motor so i guess ill have to address this problem later. can i still find the short with the motor out or not?
thanks
dan
disconnect disconnect all secondary wiring from the starter relay.
light goes out? if yes.............(should be your only answer)
then.........
one by one, touch each wire to the starter solenoid.
when the light comes back on, ID the wire color and report back.
get your test light over on the pos batt cable.
ok thanks man sounds good i will try that
Boy you are hard to convince!
It doesn't matter which side of the battery the test light is on for trouble shooting purposes.
But for safety, anytime you disconnect a battery, you should disconnect the negative first. This way if your wrench hits ground you won't have a lot of sparks and maybe have the wrench melt in your hand.
Since you should disconnect the negative anyway you may as well put the test light there instead of disconnecting the positive and then hooking the negative back up.
i planned to try this but spent much time cursing at the downpipe nuts trying to get the exhaust disconnected. I was just wondering if having the cable disconnected from the starter would change anything? Should i put it back on to test this?
the wire that had power with the car off was the brown wire. It and a green wire were hooked up to the positive side of the solenoid whitch is the side closest to the battery correct? Is the brown wire supposed to be on the negative side? just asking because if i put it over there there was no draw. The green wire gave me no power.
thanks in advance
dan
Does this mean the brown wire lights the test light?
Or are you using some other trouble shooting method?
It should be the side of the solenoid that the positive battery cable goes to.
No. If you are talking about the starter motor side of the solenoid.
Please explain how you are determining whether you have "power" or "draw".
im not using a test light im using a multimeter. I hooked up the positive battery cable to the battery and put probed between the neg battery cable and battery post and the only time i got any voltage was when the brown wire was hooked up. when i took the brown wire off the multimeter was not registering anything. Apparently everything was hooked up ok also.
I'm guessing this is your 86 TC.
The 86 EVTM shows Brown, green, blue fuse links along with the red positive battery cable on the solenoid(starter relay).
So you if you have the positive battery cable along with brown and green fuse links all on the solenoid, you have voltage between the disconnected negative battery cable and the negative battery post?
You disconnect just the brown fuse link and the voltage goes away?
This is confusing because you should have voltage with either of the fuse links hooked up.
Very high resistance circuits which would draw only a tiny amount of current and a dead short which would draw all the battery can put out will both look the same the way you are looking at it with a volt meter.
This is why you should use the test light. The high resistance circuits do not draw enough current to light the test light.
The high resistance circuit on the brown fuse link is the EEC.
The high resistance circuits on the green fuse link are the clock, radio, voltage regulator and alternator.
It sounds like you have blown out the green fuse link. Does it look like it is swollen a little from overheating?
If you pull on it, does it stretch a little like the wire inside is broken?
If your multimeter is digital and has an amp meter function you can try measuring the current draw with the brown fuse link hooked up.
If the draw that is discharging your battery is on the brown wire it will probably blow the fuse in your meter.
Or you could have a normal current draw in the 20-40ma range.
if i remember correctly the brown wire was sliced into a different color wire now that i got all the loom off of the harness. I also only had 4 things on starter relay pos, neg, green, and brown. where does this blue fuse link come from? I dont think i have one. my multimeter is not digital and idk if it has amp readings on it. ill look tommarow.
thanks
The brown fuse link is spliced to a yellow wire.
The EVTM shows a blue fuse link spliced to a BK/O wire to the engine compartment lamp.
Some buttstuffog meters don't have a fuse. You could destroy your meter.
When you say you have a "neg" on the starter relay what do you mean? Do you mean the black wire that goes to the starter motor and is on a different terminal of the relay?
no the negative battery cable goes to the block. i just was confused because i thought there had to be a + and - on the starter solenoid. i have not been up there tonight but there was a yellow and brown wire that were in the harness that were cut that is why i would like to find out what they are for. let me get pics on saturday and get back to you.
thanks dan