battery death

[kyle fitz]

im kinda of all out of ideas. my battery will die with in 24 hours. i have new cables, battery, altenator, good grounds too, i even ran the ground to the engine then from the engine to the frame. ive traced every wire, nothing is shorted out every connection is good and clean but still something is draining my battery. i was wondering if the starter could be the problem. either its taking too much power to turn over or it draining the battery with every thing off too? any advice would be appreciated.http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/i...lies/metal.gif

[extd56]

Start taking out fuses to see if you can find the culprit. The parts that always have power are the headlight switch, interior lights, power to the radio for memory if you have a newer stereo, horn. Finding a short is always a problem.

[72lb4x4]

Disconnect the battery overnight or for a day or two and see if it still discharges.

Is the battery charged? A low current charger can take a couple days to charge a battery. Running the engine isn't going to charge it very quickly either.

Is the battery good? New and charged aren't always the same thing. Same with new and good.

Get a DVM and measure the voltage on the battery with the engine off, running, and with the battery cable disconnected.

[ubtripn]

One thing that has always worked for me is to take the negative cable off and tap the negative battery post with it. If there is a small arc then there is a draw. From there you just start removing fuses as mentioned above to locate the culprit.

[kyle fitz]

the battery is good and holds charge when disconnected. Alt is putin out about 14.3 volts. there is no stereo or any aftermarket equiptment on the truck

[Hutch]

kyle fitz
Has anyone installed a pigtail for trailer lights?
This is one place that always gets hacked on these trucks

[Metal]

Put a test light in-between the neg cable and neg post on batt...If it lights up you have a draw..

Then pull fuse's till the light goes out...

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by kyle fitz

im kinda of all out of ideas. my battery will die with in 24 hours. i have new cables, battery, altenator, good grounds too, i even ran the ground to the engine then from the engine to the frame. ive traced every wire, nothing is shorted out every connection is good and clean but still something is draining my battery. i was wondering if the starter could be the problem. either its taking too much power to turn over or it draining the battery with every thing off too? any advice would be appreciated.http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/i...lies/metal.gif

What alternator do you have? internal or externally regulated? Try unplugging the alternator or take the large red wire off the back of it and see if the drain goes away. If it does you may have shorted diodes in the alternator.
If the horn wire in the steering column is grounded it will energize the horn relay and drain the battery in about 2 days. Of course you would hear the horns blowing unless you have disconnected them.

You can disconnect the firewall plug and isolate the drain to the engine area or in the cab. The red wire that feeds the cab goes through this plug and if the drain goes away when you disconnect the plug then the drain is in the cab and if you still have it then the drain is in the engine compartment.

[kyle fitz]

i put a internally regulated alt on it. i havent had too much of a chance to mess with the truck, making money gets in the way of spending it!

[BadaSs_Cal]

I wonder how many people had this same problem as me.... then pulled out every wire in the truck to see what was happening...lol... 1 week in and still no idea what the hell is going on.

[DPowers]

Had the same problem- the new pretty chrome Ebay internal regulated alternator ended up being what was doing it.
Rebuilt it and was all good.

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by BadaSs_Cal

I wonder how many people had this same problem as me.... then pulled out every wire in the truck to see what was happening...lol... 1 week in and still no idea what the hell is going on.

Start a new thread and we'll get you fixed up. give as many details as you can about what was happening and what you've done so far.

[BadaSs_Cal]

I feel silly... After rebuilding the whole harness from scratch... dash, taillights, alt/headlights... It still kept drawing....brother and dad figure it out in 5 minutes...
horn relay... go figure!

[Camaro_nut2001]

Originally Posted by DPowers

Had the same problem- the new pretty chrome Ebay internal regulated alternator ended up being what was doing it.
Rebuilt it and was all good.

Oh No!!! May I ask who you bought it from on EBay? I just bought a rebuilt polished alt. from a seller but he sells only starters and alt. and had over 6000 feedback's at a 100% rating. I don't have a battery drain but do have a weak electrical system so I'm running all new ground staps front to back and I was advised to go to a 100 amp or larger alt. The EBay one seemed to be a decent deal so we will see when it get's here. I also am installing an extra Painless fuse block to get some of the load off the factory fuse block and wiring.

[DPowers]

PM returned

[Murphy IRE]

I had a drain, so a installed a knife switch on the positive side of the battery. That gave me time to find the problem and allowed me to always get the truck started. I got my from LMC, but I just saw the same thing at Advanced Auto for less. I finally found the problem, the tach was wired to a live circuit wire instead of an iginition circuit. The knife switch also doubles as a theft deterent too. Good luck.

[motornut]

you can buy a battery post cutoff,i've seen them that you turn a green knob the size of a house fuse and it manualy moves/connects the battery to the cable,do you have elect locks?seen them sieze up ,and door pin switches too

[87chevy.com]

horn relay huh.... how did that cause your drain? I was going to sudgest the altenator is wired in incorrectly. I had the same problem and didnt figure it out untill after i sold the beast..

[raycow]

It requires two things to go wrong at the same time.

1. The wire from the relay to the contacts under the steering wheel is shorted to ground at some point, or else the contacts are closed all the time because of parts damage or improper assembly. This causes the relay coil to draw current continuously.

2. The horn itself is either defective or disconnected. Otherwise, you would hear it blow. I suppose a third possibility could be that the contacts inside the relay are bad, but this would really be a stretch.

Ray