Posted on 03/22/2015 3:30:31 PM PDT by waterhill
Always use distilled water in a battery. Any minerals, chlorine, or other impurities will interfere with the chemical ion exchange between the two battery plates.
My Jeep has a slow drain on the battery so I simply bought a 2 piece brass connector to go on the -terminal. when I decide to take the Jeep, I simply open the hood and twist the knob to close the gap and start the Jeep.
When done driving for the day I unscrew the knob, open the gap and get no battery drain.
If I had to do this daily it would get to be a problem but I don’t take the Jeep out but maybe once a week or month.
Gasoline engine? Spark Plug? Magneto? More like a few thousand volts.
Battery should read 12.6v. 2.1v per cell. Anything higher is probably surface charge. Turn on lights for for a bit to drain it then test again and you should have 12.6v. As far as a drain I use an amp probe and start pulling fuses. Keep in mind you may have a module or two on that could read a draw. Being in wet conditions water in an electrical connector could be your problem. I’ve seen water in ABS module connector cause a draw.
Remove the cigarette lighter.
Now that you mention it, it did have a magneto to generate the spark. I never knew it had that kind of voltage tho.
Did ja git that darn thing fixed yet???
This summer, go outside and pee on your spark plug on your lawnmower while it’s running. /not/
Ok, later in the thread you posted that the battery is new and the alternator is new...sounds like there has been a hit or miss approach to chasing down the problem?
Let me ask - is the vehicle driven every day...and still the battery is going dead? If this is true, there is likely a charging problem. Which, in my experience, can usually be traced to a corroded negative battery cable/connection.
different therory. Ring got hot.....not energized.
Kinda like wearing a stove top burner
“like those “$50 specials” from Wally World draw more voltage than they should”
You meant current I’m sure...
put the test light between the battery and the disconnected battery terminal- this will act as your amp meter- dim light is normal and a bright light shows a draw. Pull fuses one at a time.
It's quick and easy, plus you can see the light from a distance, while you pull fuses. This will catch 99% of parasitic drain issues.
Well, as a long-time Ford engineer, I could solve that problem in a minute - except for your gratuitous slurs against my employer for lo these many years!
The first thing to do....would be never assume it’s a battery drain.
That’s the only way TO do it.
If it was a plug wire, I guaranty you that is was a lot more than six volts. The primary side might have been six but the secondary side of a spark coil is over a thousand.
The voltage regulator is a bunch of diodes. Diodes make great fuses when things go wrong.
Not quite sure if I understand what you’re doing. If you positive is hooked up and your negative isn’t, then getting 12v or -12v seems normal providing that the actual car is grounded.
Best answer? Bring it to Autozone or O’Reilly’s auto parts. One of them will test the battery for you.
If you’ve been in some extreme cold weather for a while, old batteries do tend to die because of the increased Cranking amps needed for cold starts.
If you think it’s an electrical fault, pull all the fuses except for the starter, voltage regulator and ignition. Then push them in one by one and watch the voltage across the battery.
LOL!
I’ll bet you were going to tell him to check the crappy Ford alternator......
Ooooops.....I did it too....lol
I hope you are able to resolve the issue easily.
Best of luck- have a great evening.
Could be worse...it could be a Tesla.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.