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#91319 08/18/2003 2:59 PM | Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 114 Member | | Member Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 114 | I have a short somewhere in my 63 Nova, 6 cyl. I did the process where you connect a light between the battery and negative cable. I had a faint, pulsing, light. If I turned anything on, the light got very brite.
I disconnected all fuses and plugins for the fuse box. But nothing affected the dim pulsing light. :confused:
My battery will go almost dead overnight, so this is a real problem. Anyone have any ideas of what would cause this pulsing effect? A short in the wire harnes maybe? A bad turn signal flasher? (My neighbor mentioned that.)
Jim
Jim
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#91320 08/18/2003 3:49 PM | Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 259 Member | | Member Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 259 | For a short to drain the battery over night I'm thinking it's the alternator. Disconnect the Bat wire at the alternator and see if the test light goes out. If not then you need to start pulling fuses one by one until the light does go out. Once the light goes out you've found the circuit that is draining the battery.
Joe
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#91321 08/18/2003 8:52 PM | Joined: Feb 2001 Posts: 1,094 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Feb 2001 Posts: 1,094 | Jim if you have an alternator the diode trio is probably bad, If you look at the dash at night the alt. light will be glowing very dim. It's not hard to replace , but a rebuilt alt is probably your best bet. 
Tommy
59 apache 1/2t
261 short stepside
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#91322 08/18/2003 11:06 PM | Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 114 Member | | Member Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 114 | I must have forgot to mention that the alternator was disconnected during all this testing. And, I installed a rebuilt alternator any way. (And original 63 alt that I rebuilt over the weekend.)
So it can't be the alternator... :confused: Jim
Jim
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#91323 08/19/2003 2:52 AM | Joined: Feb 2001 Posts: 1,094 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Feb 2001 Posts: 1,094 | take the cover off the voltage regulator and look at the contacts, maybe one is dirty , a couple passes with some 400 grit sandpaper will clean them up.
Tommy
59 apache 1/2t
261 short stepside
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#91324 08/19/2003 12:30 PM | Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 114 Member | | Member Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 114 | I'm using an electronic voltage regulator from JC Whitney. I've tried swapping it for another one, but no change.
Jim
Jim
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#91325 08/19/2003 4:14 PM | Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 259 Member | | Member Joined: Mar 2001 Posts: 259 | Well if you disconnected the alternator and pulled all the fuses and you still show a drain then you need to look at the circuits that supply full-time current to the cars electrical system...."Glove Box light, dome light, brakes, under dash cigarette lighter" etc. Pull the bulbs to all the above one by one and see what happens.
Joe
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#91326 08/19/2003 7:36 PM | Joined: Dec 2001 Posts: 1,745 Member | | Member Joined: Dec 2001 Posts: 1,745 | Make sure the wires on the ignition switch are not touching the dash in any way.
54 3100 with 235
62 flatbed dump C60 with 261
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#91327 08/23/2003 12:12 AM | Joined: Oct 2001 Posts: 3,458 Extreme Gabster | | Extreme Gabster Joined: Oct 2001 Posts: 3,458 | You could also have a faulty battery that was self-discharging.
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