My battery keeps dying!

I got a new battery for my '59 and it ran fine since late last fall, then last week it was suddenly dead. Jumping it only kept it running once, so I re-charged it and it ran for a few days, but it just died again. It used to have a problem like this (but even worse) before when it still had the 223ci in it. What could some possibilities be? Are my terminals supposed to be reversed even though its a later engine? Thanks,
-Dean

 

you check the alternator? Generator? Not sure what motor you're running.

 

could be your alt., could be leaking voltage from a faulty open circut, a couple of wires could have arced some where and could be causing it to short out, dead voltage regulator. but it's usally the easy things, check out your alternator and then go from there.

 

I had a similar problem with my daughter's car and it drove me and the mechanics crazy.Same symptoms and it turned out to be a loose plate in the battery.You could check it on a tester and it would test OK but if you tapped the side of the battery the plate would short out.It would run fine but if you let it set a couple days it wouldn't start. Really hard to diagnose if you're looking too far for complicated problems.

 

One more vote for the alternator. Similar thing happend to my daily recently. I almost went nuts trying to test everything I could think of EXCEPT the alternator, as it was only three months old and couldn't possibly be the problem, right? Turns out I got a bad one out of the box. Found the receipt, got a replacement and way-hey! no more problems.

 

Turn your dome/trunk/glovebox/underhood light off?

 

Clean the terminals and posts. Check wires for anything loose, dangling or unplugged.
Check it across the battery and see what the voltage is. 12 volts
Then fire it up and see if voltage goes up or down. 14 volts
Then turn on lights and see if it drops down. Charging circuit not kicking in.
Can't go any more specific without knowing your setup.
If you don't have a multimeter, take it to autozone and they'll usually check it for free.

Sounds like your charging ciruit. Tried to diagnose one of these over the phone last year for a lady relative and after 3 hours of explaining what to do I discovered the alternator belt was missing 5 seconds after I got there and opened the hood.

 

With all of your accessories turned off, and your battery out, run a test across the battery terminals and see if you get a connection. If you do, you have a draw somewhere. Start pulling fuses to find it.

Take the alt/generator to napa and have them bench test it.

 

check the terminals are tight and clean em up if they're dirty.
start the car once you've charged it.
while it's running, pull the ground from the battery. if it dies, you need to check your alternator wiring or renew the alternator itself.
otherwise, you'll have to get the voltmeter and figure out what could be drawing power.
if you suspect the battery, take it to a big auto place and have them throw it on the tester for ya.

-Richard

 

All good suggestions but here's how I resolve these problems. Get a 12 volt buzzer like the use for seatbelt warnings etc, and connect a short piece of wire to each terminal so it'll buzz when connected across a battery. Turn off everything in the car, pull the ground cable and connect the buzzer in between the battery and the cable. ( you only need small wire like a #16 AWG) If the buzzer sounds, you have some draw on the battery somewhere. Start pulling fuses one at a time till the noise stops. The last fuse you pulled will be the circuit with the problem. Makes it pretty easy to troubleshoot when you know where to look. If the buzzer still sounds with all fuses pulled you can start checking the alternator. If your car has a clock, disconnect it first.

 

That's about the same as what I said with the test light. It works!

 

Thanks for the help. I just went out and put new battery terminals on it and am re-charging it. If that doesnt work Ill move on to the alternator. Thanks again,
-Dean

 

Do have electric wipers? My 59 was draining and it was the wiper motor not returning to the "park" position. A previous owner apparently wired the wipers to constant hot, and if the arms aren't laying all the way down they are drawing juice. (They are no longer wired hot)

 

DrJ where were you last month when I was troubleshooting my daily driver? I had this same problem and couldn't figure out what was drawing the battery down. I finally drug out the DVOM and the service manual and spent the entire afternoon pulling fuses and measuring current draw. I finally traced it down to the glovebox light...the cheap-*** plastic door had warped with age and sunlight and no longer pushed the switch in far enough to turn off the light. There are so many "other" things that could cause this problem that I never even thought about the light in the glovebox.
This is good info!

 

****! maybe thats the problem I have..

also if you have ANY relays.. check that they are wired correctly.
I once mistakenly wired an relay for my air ride. hot all the time ( by simply reversing 2 wires) also on GM (and maybe others) headlight switches one of the terminals puts out about 2 volts all the time (and 12 volts when the lights come up.) you guessed it I made that mistake once too! the problem was that 2 volts wasnt enought to light my parking lights so I never knew what was goin on till I checked with a meter.

sawzall

 

HR if u have a neg ground engine and u still jave pos grnd wire the car will still run but will discharge when the key is off. Dont ask me how I know.