The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Dead battery mystery solved?

My battery kept going dead - bought a new one, installed a disconnect switch, tested generator, took out glove compartment bulb (just in case) -- and all of this over a long - long period of time, and still the battery went down every few days. A few nights ago while driving I I noticed the amp guage was flatlined, nothing. Got home. Checked. Wire was hanging loose from the generator - probably had been holding on with one strand - maybe for a long time. Fixed the problem, now the battery is fully charged. Could the weak wire - held on by a few, and finally just one strand have been causing the problem all the time? I never would have thought of that. Completely hidden by original insulation tubing. Guess I'll put my glove box lamp back in. No big deal - I just never would have thought it could turn out to be something so simple -- and so hidden.

Dale

Ugh, that darn electricity is often tricky.

For the last few weeks, I have noticed my battery took longer to charge in the morning after start-up. Then one day I noticed my rear park lights, and dash lights were on, though the switch wasn't. Turning on the switch, turned on the front park lights, but still wouldn't turn off the rears.
I could not figure out how this could be happening, and only some of the time. On thursday morning, I went outside, and my darn rear lights were on again, and the battery was nearly dead.

Turns out, the spare fuse had partially slipped out from its holder, and was making contact from the brake curcuit, to the tail light circuit. Hard to believe that would be the only problem, on a 60 year old truck, with 60 year old wiring, with two fuses. I was ready for such a fight.
Boy am I happy.

As Bill like to say "electricity makes my head hurt". I totally agree.

Yep, definitely! Think about trying to put out a big fire with a kink in the firehose, or doing it with a garden hose instead of one with a 2" diameter- - - - - -there's just not enough volume to get the job done. Your generator was trying to meet the demands of the electrical system, ignition, lights, radio, etc., and still have some current left over to recharge the battery. Those few remaining strands of wire were like the kink in the hose- - - - -restricting the flow!

Jerry

I have some troubles periodically with the charging system on my 52, the battery drains down. The last time it happened, I checked for a draw on the battery by connecting an ammeter between the battery and the cable. I had 1 or 2 amps. Is this acceptable? Or should it be nothing. Thistruck still has a generator.

Another old trick is to keep the crud cleaned off the top of the battery, again using an ammeter, you can test between the positive terminal and any place in the crud on the top of a dirty battery and get a slight draw.

Any parasitic drain should be down in the milliamps; even one amp is way too much. Start disconnecting circuits one at a time until you find which one is causing the current draw. Do you have a modern radio with a keep-alive circuit for the electronics, or some other system that's powered up all the time? Also, are you running a 6 or 12 volt system? Sometimes a 12 volt battery with a very dirty top will self-discharge due to current leaking from one terminal to the other, but I've never heard of a 6 volt system doing that. If a battery is left idle without being used for several weeks, it will slowly self-discharge.
Jerry

Jerry,

This is a 6 volt system. I don't have a radio or anything hooked up to power. I don't run it much at all, so just sitting is a big part of this. I suspect the draw is somewhere in the lights, so I will start at the switch and see what happens when I go after this problem.

I washed the top of the battery and eliminated the draw there. It was a pretty significant jump on the meter, when it was dirty.

Thanks for the information.

Mike

Yuo might benefit from a "battery minder", a trickle charger that senses terminal voltage and only charges when the voltage drops to a pre-set level. I've got friends who store bass boats over the winter and they keep their batteries in good condition with those systems. Check Ebay for a good deal on one.
Jerry