The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Battery keeps losing charge???

Does anyone know what it might be? I bought a new batter/alternator, but with no luck. I had a friend help me and ran a wire from alteranter to battery with Does anyone know what it might be? I bought a new batter/alternator, but with no luck. I had a friend help me and ran a wire from alternator to battery with fuse. I thought that fixed it but NO. I used to have to at least turn it on everyday and it would be fine...well sort of. Now I can have it fully charged and as soon as I turn it off that’s it. Then I have to charge it again. I just went to auto zone and the check the voltage and it was reading 8.4...shouldn't it be 12v...was wanting to go to car show....boo. Any advice.

Did they actually test the battery, or just check for voltage? 8.4 is definetly too low, should have around 12.4+ for a fully charged battery. Could simply be a bad battery. Howver, there are other possabilities, such as a drain in the system (something staying on or a short to ground) or the alternator not charging properly. What kind of voltage do you vave with it running? While that's a good indicator that it's charging ok, having it load tested is the best bet, if it's not keeping up the proper amount of amperage or has bad diode, it will not cherge the battery. A bad diode can drastically shorten a batteries life, as it sends an AC voltage spike through the system.

First off, where did you put your voltmeter leads when you made your voltage check? Also where did you clip your charger when you charged the battery? If at the battery post read on. If not you might have a bad ground connection. This may take a few trys to get to the root cause. Start: Measure battery voltage and record. Remove neg. battery wire (ground) and measure and record. Charge battery without neg. wire attached overnight. It should now be above 12 volts. Place neg lead back on battery and quickly measure and record battery voltage. If below 12 volts, remove neg lead as there are problems down stream. Make all these voltage checks at the battery post. Let us know because if these check out correctly then its on to the charging system

I had left the battery there for autozone to charge it. So I put it in the burban and drove it bact to the store. He put that little muti meter thing and told me the volt. I had just bought the alternator last Saturday. I the battery cables are new. I was looking at you tube trying to find the short. The guy was taking the neg cable off and placing the test light on the neg end and placing the end point on the neg termanal and if the light came on, then i would have to pull off a fuse till that light went off. Well I only have two fuses.. and that didn't work..the light stayed on the whole time. Does that mean my fuese ain't working.

Does it matter if my ground going to the frame? I guess i can take that off and use a wire brush to clean it up a litle and but it back. Man I wish I would of listen to my dad and watch him work on cars. He would tell me sit down and watch so you can learn. He said you going to need to know how when you get older. I told him no i'm not i'm going to buy a new car. Then he tell me new cars mess up too. I kick myself in the foot everytime.

The battery is 3mon old..He placed the clamps on the battery while it was running and told me the voltage. Thats when you told me it was to low.

Before you throw more good money after bad, you need to invest in a small battery charger and a digital multimeter, and maybe a battery hydrometer, and learn to use them. For an investment of less than $75.00, you'll be able to do the same thing the parts guy does about charging and testing batteries, and you won't have to guess about what's going on. I'm pretty sure you've already spent more than that, and you're nowhere near getting on the road. It's very unlikely the battery has gone bad in a couple of months, but it's going to need to be charged and tested off the vehicle before anything else is done. If there is a current drain that's killing the battery, it begins as soon as you reinstall the charged battery and you're back where you started- - - - -dead battery and no progress made toward fixing it.
Jerry

did you have this problem before the new alternator? who converted the truck to an alternator? did you get the same type as was in it before? did you wire it exactly the same as before?

yes, you shoulda listened to yer daddy the light staying on means you have a dead short somewhere - you need to learn about DC electrical circuits - the alternator does not connect directly to the battery via a fuse .... I'd say your alternator wiring is wrong, grounding the battery back thru the alternator when you turn it off

Bill

Yes I had the same problem. It was already converted when i bought it in 2006. Yes she matched the same part number. I did wire it back the same too.

Oh but when i bought it in 2006 i didn't have any problems with it. I drove it like that for like 4 mon before i went to japan. Then it sat for almost three years. My dad did turn it on every now and then, and when i came back to the states i would drive it.

so you've replaced an alternator but you still have the same problem with a new alternator ... maybe you have an auto electric shop near that could analyze it and find the problem? it's real tough for anyone here to figure out what broke there when you don't know how the whole thing is supposed to work - something went wrong and the battery is draining so fast that the "something" has to be a short circuit

Bill

I have not read all here but from little I get is
your battery reads 8 volt.
You put in a light to see if you have a wiring problem. Light lit and you pull fuses which gets you no change.

FUSE problem ?? Only if they are oversize ie 30 instead of 10. You do not have a short - defined as zero ohms and infinite amps. You do have something that either has bad insulation or some load you are unable to turn off. Disconnect battery and put on charger. Go thru your wiring with a VOM

Okay so I found one wire lose. I was wondering if this could be the problem. I was under my dash board and saw a wire dangling. I couldn’t see where it would have gone. So I traced it back and it went to the alternator. It goes to the clip on top. I can see that where the HOT wire would go. So I am I right by saying the one I found is a ground. If so why was it going under the dash board? I still don’t know if that fixes my problem because I did the test check with the btry and it still light up. Would that wire cause my test light to light up?

It's not a ground. Does it go to the plastic plug with two wires? What kind of alternator do you have, internal or external regulated? The plug looks like this II or this --. What color is the wire, it most likely is the wire that energizes the alternator and would go to a switched ignition source.

Thanks for all the help but just took it for someone to do. Well looks like my wiring was all wrong.