why battery sizzles?

I have been having electricial problems with my 57 chevy. it's 12 volts rewired with americian autowiire. the battery has a drain problem. i'll check that with my test light pulling fuses. but my question is: why does the battery make a sizzle sound when i hook the negative cable up? thanks

 

you must have a serious short somewhere

 

I would ask, where is the sizzle coming from? I'm guessing that it is one (or both) of the battery terminals. Dirt, corrosion or just plain loose will cause the noise.

 

is it a sizzle, or a fizzle? I ask, cause if you apply a serious charge to a battery it will bubble, fizzle. Is it when the car is running, or just when you connect the terminal? If so I vote for short/serious drain.

 

the battery has a drain problem. i'll check that with my test light pulling fuses.

get a digital multimeter. you need a number not a light. what if you have 11.5 volts somewhere? that light will prolly still light up, and unless you are testing in the dark you won't notice the difference.

 

when you touch the cable to the battery you hear a sizzle or a zap sound (like a spark plug wire zap) that means something is staying on (the louder and harder the zap, the more power is staying on). that would make sense with your battery drianing. what you need is a volt meter to check for drains. remember amps are more important.

 

Definitely make sure you check all installed grounds for metal to metal contact. A light brushing while you have any connections apart is a good idea even if there's nothing obvious--enough invisible oil and grit will give you major heartburn. Should have shiny metal everywhere--may seem obvious, but it's easy to forget the more frustrated you get.

 

If you just went to a one wire Alt. do yourself a Big Favor and disconect the power wire from it untill you find the problem. In fact the problem is often with the Alt. having feed back. You may need to install a one way Diod to controll the direction of power from it and not to it. No matter what, disconect it for now.
The Wizzard

 

Put an ammeter in series between the batt. post and the disconnected cable; if you show current then something is either shorted out or left on, such as a radio, stuck fan motor, etc.
Keep your face and body away from a fizzing battery; it may want to do more than just fizz. Good luck with it. .....Bob

 

I had the problem when a battery of mine cracked internally. It started after I bottomed out on my oil pan from a dip in the road. It would over charge and it would sizzle. Might be a bad battery.

 

thanks for all the help. i don't have a 1 wire alternator. how would i used a volt meter? do i put the ammeter between the negative post and cable as that is the one making the sizzle sound

 

Either terminal in the circuit.

 

same with the volt meter set on amps. i think anything over .5 of an amp is too much.

 

voltage regulator?

 

If you're new to it here's a trick: Do all your work off the negative terminal for safety. On a car always disconnect negative first, always connect negative last. All the metal on the car is the negative, with that cable off positive can touch or brush the metal accidently and no spark boom spatter.
If electricity and meters are new to you heres a test, get a gl*** fuse one or two amp, touch one end to the negative terminal, touch negative cable to other side of fuse. If the fuse blows right now something with a big appi***e wants your DC.
Now comes the fun part, is it electrically ***embled wrong, or is it a faulty component, or do you now have a faulty component because it was ***embled wrong before?

 

thanks for the tip. I rewired this car about 3 summers ago with no problems until recently, I have had problems with the neutral safety switch