Electrical problems back with a vengeance.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Author unknown[/FONT]



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Take a break and come back to it when you get the itch again.

Dead again....after just sitting? Just saying dead doesn't give enough information to try and figure it out. I know you are frustrated. I've been there many times and almost every time it was something that I had over looked or checked and eliminated early in the attempt to fix it. Usually I ***umed that a test eliminated the problem and dismissed it as a possibility.


It's going to turn out to be something simple...it always does.

Walk away and come back when you have more patience. I'm a frustration expert.

PS I once laid on my back in a parking lot changing my starter in 20 MPH winds freezing my *** off only to find that there was nothing wrong with the starter or solenoid. Dirty batter cable connections. click click click sound familiar? You said the heater fan was blowing.

 

kevin, look at it like this "failure is not a option!" i just spent 3 days chasing "electrical gremlins" in a customers machine and now after a "oversight" on my part its working with no issues! if i was a idiot i could tell you "dude if you were closer...." feel good your working with DC power only my machine have both AC/DC and it really make a person crazy when you realize your meter it on wrong setting!

 

What is the news Kevin?

 

Why dont you just put a one wire alternator on it and forget about it , Another question do you need a ballast resistor for your coil ,ARE YOU FRYING YOUR POINTS ,iS distributor plate grounding out ,Ive heard about this .How much for car .Just dont give up ,

 

Check the starter. You might have a lose bearin/bushing allowing the armature to drag on the fields. That condition will give you the appearance of a dead battery, no turn over, short turn over or slow turn over. I went through the same chase on two cars years ago: 64 GTO and 61 falcon. God, I wish I kept both of them.

 

The problem appears to be in the voltage control. You have either miswired the VR or it is not operating properly. You can either check and adjust the VR or replace it. You are boiling your batteries to death with high voltage. Take two pieces of wire attach one to your - terminal and one to your + terminal. fish them around and into the p***enger compartment and hook them up to a voltage meter and drive and I bet you will find your problem.
Quick and easy way around this is to mount an internally regulated alternator (GM one wire). It is not old timey, but works, is dirt cheap, and you can quit pulling your hair out. You will need to jumper two wires on your current VR for the rest of your electrical system to work. If you decide to do this PM me and I'll go look at my pick up truck and send you a picture or schematic.

 

I'd make sure you found an alternator shop that asked for the generator AND the voltage reg. Kind of hard to make sure they're both working without checking them together.

 

Did you polarize the generator?

If ones not polarized correctly, it can actually **** juice

 

check for crimped or breaking wiring-check distributor

 

Kevin, what's the haps with this truck?

 

Hey 440, I said it "appears" to be in the voltage control. What lead me to that is the OP saying that he is boiling the battery. Every time I find batteries boiling dry it has been due to too high of voltage.
You are right though, in that the OP has not offered some basic readings with a multi meter. From reading is post (IIRC) it doesn't appear to be a slow drain, but rather the battery getting weaker over time and not accepting a charge.

 

$$$$ WE fought this **** on a 57 chevy. Replaced all the **** at least twice !!! So one afternoon this oldtimer type cat was in the shop poking around and he's looking under the hood of the car. He asks why the car never has left the shop for awhile and we tell him of the crazy **** the charging system is doing. He stares at the damn thing for about ten minutes or so. Then he says if you hook a Ground Wire from the Negative Battery Cable to the Steel Fender your problem will be solved !! And I'll be ****ed he was right !!! Now I don't know if this will fix your truck but it has fixed at least 4 more charging problems I've encountered in the last 20 years >>>>.

 

The problem is too much load and not enough charge rate...

Anyone know what generator for ford puts out the most amps. This is on a flattie in a pickup.

 

so i wanted to revive this post cuz i am having a lot of the same issues. i have done all he fixes, high compress motor, figure bigger battery can help. new ground, new battery cables, ends. bought a light, pulled the cable and found that i have a draw. pulled fuses, finally narrowed it down to the fuse that is between the ignition switch and the starter.

so now what, is it possible that the iginition switch is the problem? its one of the universal switches, do these have issues? is it the starter? what should i do next?

 

yes, very frustrating and i hate electric! at least i have narrowed it down to a general area (now that i have spent money and replaced everything else) just not sure how to proceed but this post is def. something that needs to go into the tech section

 

anyone so now what, is it possible that the iginition switch is the problem? its one of the universal switches, do these have issues? is it the starter? what should i do next?

or is it a bad alt?

 

I have had these switches go bad. Take the switch out and test it with an ohm meter. Move the key position around a little in each of the locations when you test and see if the meter changes. Good luck. Switches are pretty cheap if you want, just change it out for a new one. Beware though as I have had a lot of new parts that were bad.

John

 

thats what i was thinking. they are 10 bucks at the parts store. easy enough to try. i have let people start it or drive it and i wonder if you crank the key back to far or whatever if it could do something internally to the cheap *******s to cause a small draw. i have been reading that the starter can cause a draw, how do you test for that?

 

The simple way is to undo the circuit and jumper in a light socket pigtail with a small bulb and see if the light, lights up. You can do this for most any circuit. I do it when I first test a new harness by placing the bulb and socket between the battery positive and the positive cable. Somethings will goof you up when you do this, like a radio that has a constant draw for a memory. It is a simple way to check circuits for draw at the fuse box.

John

 

Sounds like Kevin has it back under control, but I had to post about a similar experiance that happened to me. Years ago I was driving my Falcon as my daily, and suddenly, without warning, it would come up with a dead battery. Didn't matter how much or how little I drove it, let it sit for awhile, dead battery. I threw every possible fix at it I could think of including a wire by wire search of what I thought was the whole vehicle. Got so bad I put a positive wire quick disconnect on the trunk mounted battery, and made sure it was disconnected if I was a way from the the car for an hour or two. So what fixed it? Well, one day sitting at a stoplight being a typical goofball that I am known to be - singing at the top of my lungs to the silence in the car - I reached over and turned the knob on the radio as if to make myself louder. So far so good. But the radio was turned on! Hadn't had a speaker and apparently a light since I bought the car 10 years earlier, but there it was! I had always ***umed that it was disconnected before I bought the car, cause no light , no sound, couldn't hear it over the exhaust noise anyway! Clicked it off, problem solved. Top that for general electronic stupidity!!!

 

If I read right and he has a flathead, I had a problem with a steel strap on the starter contacting the starter positive post once and awhile while it was running. Finnally found it in contact after a shut down and test or I would have been chasing that for a longer time.

 

well, i found it. i had wired my water temp gauge to the same circuits as my headlights/taillights. well they are always hot at the switch so my guage was "on" all the time keeping my car cool..... : /