I hate electrical problems.... charging

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mopar_1974

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somehow, my car does not want to keep a charged battery. in the past few months i have done the following.
replaced and tightened alt belt
replaced the alternater
replaced the voltage regulator
replaced the starter
replaced the battery and terminals
bypassed the ammeter

if i charge the battery, it will be fine starting for a few days. but after driving it for a while, the battery drains and eventually it will leave me needing a jump, or very close to it. I tested the voltage at the battery and it reads around 14.3 at idle.... so why is it not charging?
 
It sounds like there is a drain on the battery when the key is off. 14.3 V @ idle is fine, the charging system is working as intended.
 
a simple test light between battery ground cable and battery ground post will show a draw if there is one. Check ground wires battery to block connection and ground strap engine to firewall. Also if you do see a draw then rule out dome lamp etc.., check for a leak at start relay. Once in a while those relays (and silinoids like on Fords) can pass a few volts. Just enough to keep the starter nice and warm LOL
 
The best way to tell if your really charging the battery is to place a voltmeter across the battery terminals and watch the reading as you increase the engines RPMs. The voltage should rise a volt or two as you open up the throttle.
 
You could also disconnect both cables and see what the battery volts are by itself and then reconnect and see if the voltage drops connected with the key off. If there is a 1-2 volt or more difference then you have something leaking to ground.
 
Turn the key off, disconnect the positive cable and put an ammeter between the positive cable and the positive terminal on the battery. This will give you an exact measurement of how much current you're loseing with the key off. That's the easy part! The hard part is finding out where the current is leaking.
 
as stated above connect an ohm meter between a disconnected cable and the battery(i prefer the ground cable) if you have a reading start pulling fuses from the fuse block one at a time/when your meter goes to zero you will have found the circuit in which you have a power drain.simple but effective!
 
no, its not a drain. i put a voltmeter up to it and found a 3 volt drain. but then disconnected my hot wire to the radio and it went to zero. Its just the hot that keeps all my settings on the radio that pulls juice. nothing else. the thing is also, i can be driving over an hour, and when i shut it off to fill up with gas or something, its dead or very close to it when i try to start it back up. thanks for the suggestions tho guys
 
also, i did the fuse pull thing first and nothing happened, then i realized the radio was connected straight to the battery
 
So you're saying you stop for gas and then the engine will not turn over? If this is the case, can you turn on your headlights and are they bright? If they are, you may have a starter solonoid getting hot and causing problems.
 
alright, i think ive gotten a little farther on it. I retested the voltage at idle and this time its cranking out a solid 15 volts. after doing some more poking around i found that i am getting 12.5 volts to the fuses that are straight from the battery, but only 10.5 to the fuse that is controlled by the ignition switch. i did a little bit more poking and found that the starter relay only got 10.5 volts, i tried charging the battery, but it was charged in less than five minutes. so, i came to the conclusion that something is causing me to only get 10.5 volts, and it just appears to have a dead battery, now, how am i only getting 10.5 volts? could it be that i disconnected the gauge cluster or woldnt that affect it?
 
your radio should not be causing a 3 volt drop on the battery..........If you have a full charge before taking off and nothing in a short while then possibly your alternator is bad when it gets nice and warm.
 
i cant run an optimum battery or i have that type of charging problem w/battery in trunk.
 
are all of the ground wires connected propperly

when i had an accedent with my 87 dakota i forgot to connect one ground wire and it fucked up manny things like fuel gauge was clear past empty turn sinal was on
 
63dartman said:
your radio should not be causing a 3 volt drop on the battery..........If you have a full charge before taking off and nothing in a short while then possibly your alternator is bad when it gets nice and warm.
Click to expand...

no its not dropping the battery 3 volts, i disconnected the negative cable and ran a voltmeter from the cable to the negative post and thats what it was pulling. just enough to keep the power button lit up and the memory.
 
A small test light bulb in series with the battery post and cable is you best bet.
If the test light draws enough current to light up, that's a problem.
If not, look elsewhere.
 
Pull your bulkhead connectors, remove corrosion with vinegar and then clean up the male terminals with emery cloth until they are shiny. Squirt the female connectors with electrical system cleaning spray and clean them out with a tiny wire brush.

Look for a hot wire in one of the circuits that has been accidentally shorted to ground at some time in the past. The wire will be stiff where it got hot. Copper turns to copper oxide when it gets hot, and copper oxide is not a good conductor. Replace the section that got overheated. I don't like to use crimp connectors. I prefer to solder all connections with rosin core solder (never acid core on electrical connections).
 
71 dart 318/dual w/ glass pacs/holley 600 cfm/edelbrock performer/904. electrical problem.....battery dies right before my eyes... short? when middle bulkhead connector is pulled it stops. middle bhead has fusable link and starter relay wire (same thing?) and i think it goes to fuse box..steering wheel droped to seat, cluster pulled out...volt meter or starter relay bad?
 
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