not again...

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

i am the proud owner of a dead battery. how dead? less than 2 volts dead.

it seems i have a parasitic load somewhere just draining the hell out of my battery and the best part is...its intermittent. i bought this battery last week and the car fired right up, i let it sit 3 days came up and it fired right up. this time i let it sit 2 days and its deader than a doornail.

where would the most obvious places to look for this problem? nothing was on like headlights so the most obvious stuff like that can be ruled out. nothing was done differently the two times i ran the car so im pretty confused about this.

 

[megaladon6]

the easiest thing to do is to connect a test light to the + battery terminal and the + cable end, then remove the end. if the light stays on, you have a draw. one by one, pull fuses until the light goes out. then inspect that circuit.

 

[dan2286]

Hook a test light in series with the positive battery cable, the light should be off or very dim if there is no draw. If the light is on, start pulling fuses and see if any of those turns the light off. The fuse that turns the light off is the circuit that is causing the problem.

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

excellent. thanks. now i have somewhere to start...after i get the battery recharged i'll check this out.

should this testing find nothing...then what? because i think this is an intermittent problem and i know those can be a PITA to figure out.

 

[pokertramp]

Just a thought but do you have a power antenna?

On my 82' Regal the power antenna would turn on all by itself sometimes and I got lucky one day and noticed it. When it did turn on it ran constantly.

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

nope, fortunately my car pretty much has power nothing, no power locks, windows, antenna, nothing.

 

[pokertramp]

nope, fortunately my car pretty much has power nothing, no power locks, windows, antenna, nothing.

So that should make your job easier.

Some other ideas of what it could be:

trunk light or under hood light staying on?

Something in the ignition system, bad coil?

Bad diodes in the alternator, the alternator could be brand new but if the diodes are fried for some reason it will drain the battery.

 

[HT'GP]

dead battery

i'm with pokertramp , check your altenator. how much trouble was replacing clock with tach. :?:

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

coil doesnt seem bad. i plan on replacing it anyway as i plan on doing some work on the ignition.

i doubt the alternator is the problem. i have no idea how i'm going to test the diodes in it. i havent done testing in so long i totally forgot how its all done.

this seems to be intermittent, not constant or else when i came back to the car after the first time i got it running after i replaced the battery it would have been dead and it wasnt but now it is and less time had gone by, almost 4 days the first time and 2 the second... whatever is causing this isnt consistent and that is going to make this worse.



the tach was easy. i had to move the thing on the back from V8 to V6 and soldered it in place as it kept giving me fits. i found the factory wire under the dash that is suppose to go to the coil and ran it through the grommet for the throttle cable. i also needed a 3rd clip for it as the clock uses two but the tach uses 3, i also had to move one of the 2 i already had. that was all i needed to do. the gauges should prove more interesting, the oil pressure sending unit more than the coolant temp sensor. getting it in wont be fun or easy.

 

[StreetDogg316]

My Regal just started having the same problem, I got the battery charged at AutoZone and they said it was just fine, I brought the battery home and the car started right up. About a week or so later After it had sit for about a week, I tried starting it and the starter turned the engine over once, And then nothing but clicking coming from it.