Acardiel11 Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Thank you all in advanced!Just started having this battery drain recently. Started her up one evening and drove to have dinner. After dinner, I jumped back in the truck and went to start her. Nothing happened, no lights or clicking. Jumped her and she started right up and was able to drive home. The next day I went to go start her and nothing happened again. Before this issue, the starter was a little slow when cranking and so I went to oreillys and grabbed a reman starter. Also ended up replacing the alternator and battery after that. After searching on some forums, I did a few checks. I hooked up a test light to the negative cable and post, turned the key and the light came on. I pulled the fuses under the dash and the light stayed on, pulled out the cigarette lighter and light was still on, I disconnected the voltage regulator and the light turned off. Figured that was the issue so I went to oriellys and grabbed a voltage regulator, installed it, hooked up the test light again and the light came back on. I’m lost at this point. Any other things I should check out? Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Stop replacing parts. The ones on there were never bad and you may put a bad something in and added to your problems. New is no guarantee that they are any good. You want to check with a light and THE KEY OFF. Like you shut it off for the night. If the key is on.... so are the gauges and the ignition so yes the light will be on. Start with the fuses, then unplug the alternator, Is the dome light on??? Does you horn work? are the brake lights on? Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted December 29, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Yeah I know. I should have never bought parts. Smh.... Anyways, i did have the test light hooked up with the key off before I turned the key on. Test light was not lite up. Brake lights are not on, fixed that problem. Steering wheel was replaced with a different wheel and I just read on a forum that the wire could cause it to ground out and drain the battery. I pulled the wire out to make sure it’s not being grounded. Dome light has no light bulb. Thanks for the response! 1 Quote Link to comment
Stoffregen Motorsports Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Stop replacing parts. The ones on there were never bad and you may put a bad something in and added to your problems. New is no guarantee that they are any good. You want to check with a light and THE KEY OFF. Like you shut it off for the night. If the key is on.... so are the gauges and the ignition so yes the light will be on. Start with the fuses, then unplug the alternator, Is the dome light on??? Does you horn work? are the brake lights on? Yep, it's always something simple. Check the basics first. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 Yeah I know. I should have never bought parts. Smh.... Anyways, i did have the test light hooked up with the key off before I turned the key on. Test light was not lite up. Brake lights are not on, fixed that problem. Steering wheel was replaced with a different wheel and I just read on a forum that the wire could cause it to ground out and drain the battery. I pulled the wire out to make sure it’s not being grounded. Dome light has no light bulb. Thanks for the response! Then by this statement you have no draw when the car is sitting. Quote Link to comment
jrock4224 Posted December 29, 2017 Report Share Posted December 29, 2017 bad voltage reg can cause a drain in ir alts Quote Link to comment
Anonymous Waffle Posted December 30, 2017 Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 How old is your battery? Can't a old battery have problems holding charge? Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted December 30, 2017 Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 Battery is new he did mention. With all that money on new parts, you could get a DC amp meter. Clamp that on the battery lead and you will have an idea of how much drain you are looking for. Multimeters with DC amp reading are valuable to have around anyway. I'd consider the horn on your steering wheel. The Datsun was switched negative, most parts are switched positive. 1 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 30, 2017 Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 Yeah I know. I should have never bought parts. Smh.... Anyways, i did have the test light hooked up with the key off before I turned the key on. Test light was not lite up. Brake lights are not on, fixed that problem. Steering wheel was replaced with a different wheel and I just read on a forum that the wire could cause it to ground out and drain the battery. I pulled the wire out to make sure it’s not being grounded. Dome light has no light bulb. Thanks for the response! There is no battery drain! if the light is out there's no current flow. Quote Link to comment
Roadster-ka Posted December 30, 2017 Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 WHAT MIKE SAID:IF THE TEST LIGHT WON'T LIGHT WITH KEY OFF, THERE IS NO DRAIN!@! Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted December 30, 2017 Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 if you hooked test light up in series from the battery post to the cable with the test light in middle . and light did not come ON with key off. then there is no DRAIN. when key is ON and light comes on then shows you have test light hooked up correctly and it should drain. or dome light on ect...... now a weak alternator will act like a battery drain if lights and wipers are used say driving home at night and then in morning car don't start. One can buy a cheap Innova test battery volt meter that plugs in the cig lighter and will show while driving if your holding a charge under load. Many version of this on Ebay/ amazon. Some are digital or lighted diodes. Simple to use and don't drain the battery Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted December 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 Mike is correct. Test light is hooked up with key off and there is no light lite up. Battery lasted over night and did a 60 mile drive this morning. I must have read a forum wrong about how to test for a drain. I thought key on with test light lite meant there was a drain. Before I replaced the reg, I was have symptoms of a bad regulator. My bad guys! Haha thank you all! Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 30, 2017 Report Share Posted December 30, 2017 :thumbup: Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 WELL... it’s not fixed. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Hang on you said the lights got dimmer and dimmer? That says the battery was charged up but not re charging and the lights slowly killed it. If the alternator was working it would have run on the output till you shut it off. So... Does the red charge lamp come on when you turn the ignition to ON? Was the red charge light on while this was happening? Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted December 31, 2017 Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Sure sounds like an alternator issue. Or something preventing the alternator from working right. Loose belt, bad ground, stator dead, I bought an Optima. While my alternator was dead (waiting on a new one), I drove that battery 50-70 miles per day, coming home with headlights, and often wipers., that Optima gave me two solid days before showing signs of low voltage. Then id charge it up at home and do it again. Those batteries are worth it, but you still have a problem charging. Test your alternator, then re-install all of the connections. Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted January 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Yes it got dimmer and dimmer. Not sure on the red lamp light. I pulled the dash off a long time ago and didn’t label wires so I don’t believe that light is hooked up. It was working before I pulled the dash though. Let’s say the red lamp light was lite up. What does that tell you? Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted January 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 The alternator was pulled and tested two weeks ago. Quote Link to comment
racerx Posted January 1, 2018 Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Take the alternator somewhere else and get it tested. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 1, 2018 Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Yes it got dimmer and dimmer. Not sure on the red lamp light. I pulled the dash off a long time ago and didn’t label wires so I don’t believe that light is hooked up. It was working before I pulled the dash though. Let’s say the red lamp light was lite up. What does that tell you? That lamp has to be in the circuit or the alternator won't energize. Sometimes if you rev it up there is enough residual magnetism to get it going. Then it will charge till you shut it off. But generally the reason the red light comes on with the ignition is to tell the driver that the bulb is good. If the bulb is good that alternator gets a mild 12v signal to energize the field coils. Better get that dash light fixed. 1 Quote Link to comment
tr8er Posted January 1, 2018 Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 That lamp has to be in the circuit or the alternator won't energize. Sometimes if you rev it up there is enough residual magnetism to get it going. Then it will charge till you shut it off. But generally the reason the red light comes on with the ignition is to tell the driver that the bulb is good. If the bulb is good that alternator gets a mild 12v signal to energize the field coils. Better get that dash light fixed. This sounds promising. Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted January 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Interesting. I will definitely get that fixed then. Does anyone happen to know which color wire goes to the red light on the dash? Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 1, 2018 Report Share Posted January 1, 2018 Yes it got dimmer and dimmer. Not sure on the red lamp light. I pulled the dash off a long time ago and didn’t label wires so I don’t believe that light is hooked up. It was working before I pulled the dash though. Let’s say the red lamp light was lite up. What does that tell you? How the hell do you operate without your gauges warning lights and a dash?????????????? White/Red stripe goes back to the alternator, it's the #6 position on the round plug but the other side of the lamp goes to the Yellow/Red wire that finds it's way to the fuse box and is turned on by the ignition switch.. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted January 2, 2018 Report Share Posted January 2, 2018 WTF???????????? I said it, the alt wasnt charging running off the battery 1 Quote Link to comment
Acardiel11 Posted January 3, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2018 haha all the gauges work but the battery warning light. Haven’t been able to get around the some testing with the holidays. Hopefully I can get to it sometime this week Quote Link to comment
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