The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Battery keeps going dead

53 chevy half ton rewired the truck last summer. Battery will go dead if it sits for 2 days. Battery was tested, new alternator,one wire. Is there there a tester I can use to find any open circuits when the truck is shut down?

Standard VOM, volt ohm meter. Easy to use, cheap.

A test light will tell you what's left hot when the key is off.

did the test light thing, pulled each fuse, still an open circuit. Pulled the starter solenoid wire from the starter relay, light went off. Could this be the problem, what is the fix, do I have the starter relay wired wrong.

Hi coach
I am not familiar with starter solonoid and relay on a 53 but I think that circuit should be switched. In other words, it should not be hot until you turn on the ignition switch.

I think Coach has something other than a stock engine and starter in that truck. Mention that when you ask for help, it may help the guys help you..

You could put a battery cut off switch in until you determine the cause. They are inexpensive and effective.

Sorry I didn't give enough information. 72 amc 360 engine, **** starter relay, **** starter. One wire from starter to relay,next post, + cable from relay to battery,One wire alternator connected to relay, starter solenoid wire to same post as alternator. Ignition switch start on small front post. Other than this area all other connections seem to be fine. Sorry about the earlier post. Coach Frank

Hedgehog...Where's the tire iron

I reserve the tire iron for those who butcher restorable trucks (and threaten to paint them lime green ). From the description on Coach's page, this truck is an engineering feat with a Chevy pickup around it.

Coach, I have no idea how to rearrange the wiring so your starter solenoid is switched, or even if that's how it's supposed to be. I would recommend replacing the starter solenoid and the points (if you're using points ignition); it can't be good for the ignition hardware to carry a charge long enough to bleed the battery.

Hey, random thought just struck me; have you tested the ignition switch to see if it's still hot in the off position?

Try unhooking the hot wire to the alternator and temporarily tape it off. See if it still drains the battery when sitting.

While the batt has a fresh charge and in your vehicle hooked up, pull the neg cable and tap it to the ground post. If there is any spark at all, that means that something is on or drawing power. Now you can start taking the power source away from all things that draw power. Do this one item at a time til the sparks stop. This is very basic and easy. I hope this helps.

Good luck Victor

Hedgehog, put your tire iron away. Previous owner put a low mileage wagoneer frame with dana 44's3.73 gears and a low mleage 72 jeep pickup 360 amc drive line. If you don't know about amc's they used many chevy and **** parts in their production. Like I have a turbo 400 tranny saginaw power steering, chevy alternator etc. stock parts! I have titles for all three vehicles from south dakota and nebraska. Plus it has, 100% original body parts no rust, no bondo, no patch panels, only tailgate is not original. This is why I purchased the vehicle plus it is 4 wheel drive, but original height not jacked sky high. Take a look at it on my site!!!!! Glad to get that off my chest! Thanks guys for the suggestion, I have been out of town and will try some of your suggestions and let you know if I find the open circuit. It was already switched to 12 volt by PO, but we rewired the whole vehicle last summer, my son drove it daily, so the current drain never had a chance to show up. We dive what we build , not show vehicles, my son has the 72 nova at college, had 10 offers to sell it. Besides the stovebolt site I read the international full size jeep site to get great info. on wagoneers. It has helped, because of my" BUTCHERED" 53 Chevy

Coach, I think most of us are amazed by the mix of parts in your truck. You may well have the world's only AMC-powered AD Chevy.

Was the Wagoneer frame and axles used on your truck wide-track or narrow-track? I am looking for a narrow-track FSJ Dana-44 front axle for my panel. They can take the 3/4-ton Chevy 8-lug hubs and brakes, so I can stay 8-lug, get 4WD, and not have my tires sticking out where they don't belong. The only late '70s full size jeeps that have shown up around me lately have been wide-tracks. There was a Cherokee on eBay lately that didn't sell for an opening bid of $120, but it was WAY too far away for me.

Sorry if I sounded nasty, seems like a long week already. Narrow track Dana,s will work. Wagoneers up to andincluding 79 are narrow track. I am getting ready to swap in a 79 dana 44 on the front. Will have power disc brakes and better power steering than I now have. I used **** f150 hubs and rotors so I could keep the 5 on 51/2 spacinf of my rear drums. Check the international full size jeep site, it really helped. Let me know if you need any help with what you need for the swap.

Can you post the link to that site? From my research, I know that there were wide-track FS Jeeps in the late '70s, I have seen one each (Wagoneer and Cherokee) in my local boneyards.

On the battery drain issue, you may have a bad electrical component somewhere. My '77 Corvette had a terrible battery drain for years (it was my dad's car before it was mine), and it went away after I made a minor repair somewhere along the line. I don't even know what it was that I fixed. Electrical problems like that are a total pain. I think there might be an old thread or a tech tip on here about tracking down your troubles.

http://www.ifsja.org/index.shtml Yes there are some narrow and wide track in the late 70,s Jeep trucks and wranglers wont,t work. Wagoneers not cherokee. Most late 70,s were also full time 4 wheel drive,quadratrack, but it is real easy to change to manual hubs. I may even have another front dana 44 in my barn, but shipping to Mo. would kill you. We seem to have lots of them in western Pa. I made a plywood template of the narrow track with spring mounts marked and would crawl under wags all over western pa. Much easier than a measuring take. Also the pumpkin on wags can be on either the drivers side or passanger side. Need to match the rear. Not many 3.73 rears out there, so I need to swap gears in the one I now have. I don,t think I will try it though,$250 to get gears swapped around here,with your own parts. Paid $50 for a dana front and rear, about another $100 in ball joints wheel bearings and used rotors. Gets expensive real fast. Hopethis helped.

Victor's 1950 advice is good. I have tried variations of his technique many times. It can be tedious but you keep disconnecting electrical components until you get no spark.

Another ways to test for current flow instead of looking for a spark is to disconnect both battery cables and put a continuity tester between the positive and negative cables. Then, keep disconnecting leads to devices until the continuity light goes out.

Once I had a Volkswagen squareback that was draining batteries. After I was told the generator was bad (wrong), I was told the voltage regulator was bad (wrong) and finally I was told the battery was bad (wrong again). Luckily I was dealing with a parts supplier who was fair and honest (and embaressed). One of counter men said to do the continuity tester diagnosis. After several hours of disconnecting and reconnecting many electrical components, I found the problem in a non-working clock (since it was not working, I did not test it until last). The reason it was not working was that it had shorted out internally and was draining electricity. The short was apparently minor at first (I bought the vehicle 3 years before and the clock was not working) but as time went on, the short got worse and drained more current. The inside of the clock was charred and would most likely have eventually caused a fire if not found.

By the way, if you have an electric clock, disconnect it first (it draws a small amount of current at all times).

Good luck,
Tim

Can't work on it for a few days, but I am listening to all suggestions, it drove me crazy last weekend trying to find it. Had the alternator and battery tested and put a new starter relay, new battery cables and starter cable on. Starter is less than 6 months old. That's how I found out I had a **** starter when I went to buy a new one.