Re: Driveit's day dreaming and build thread.

by driveit Mon Sep 15, 2014 8:03 pm

but only 4 days. I wouldn't think it would go down that quick.

by thatfnthing Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:15 pm

Neither the clock nor the radio should be enough to drain a fully charged battery in a only a few days.

Had your alternator disconnected recently? If you reconnect your alternator without disconnecting the ground at the battery, you can easily blow the alternator's rectifier bridge, and when the car is off the current starts to flow the other direction from the battery back to the alternator. Drains a full battery in a couple days.

The test:
• Turn the car off.
• Get your voltmeter and set it to amps DC.
• Disconnect the main feed from the alternator at the positive battery terminal.
• Put one lead of the meter on the end of the alternator cable and the other lead on the positive battery terminal.

If the meter reads any amps, the current is draining back through the alternator and you need to have the rectifier bridge replaced. Some electrical repair places may be able to repair just the bridge, but a parts store will just sell you a whole new alternator.

by driveit Tue Sep 16, 2014 2:27 pm

I am not sure which one you are referring to as the main feed from the alternator. I have one wire the plugs in on the back and a ground. I think that is all. Are you referring to the one you plug in? If so, when I test this do I touch the terminal to the pin sticking out of the back of the alt? My alternator has not been unplugged at all. The belt flew off the other day. I removed the ground cable on the battery when rewiring the radio. Thats all I can think of.

by dynchel Tue Sep 16, 2014 2:55 pm

There should be a power wire also, (1/2 nut IIRC.)

by thatfnthing Tue Sep 16, 2014 2:57 pm

The alternator grounds through its case, so the wires you should have are: 1) the dash 'GEN' indicator light, 2) 12v in from the ignition switch so the alternator knows how much voltage to put out, and 3) the main feed back to battery positive. #1 and #2 go into the plug on the alternator -- we don't care about those.

#3 is the one we want -- it is attached by itself to the back of the unit with a nut. IIRC in the stock setup it will go to the starter, but it's the same as if it ran to the battery + terminal (which is where mine is). Rather than crawling under the car, it'll be the same if we unbolt the wire from the back of the alternator and use the meter there: put one lead on the cable end and the other on the terminal you disconnected it from. If there are amps flowing while the car is off, the rectifier is shot and the alternator is draining the battery when the car is off.

Be careful not to short anything when you detach or attach the wire on this terminal, since it's a live 12v positive feed and will short anything metal it touches, and we don't want to cause the very problem we're trying to detect.

by driveit Tue Sep 16, 2014 2:58 pm

Guess I thought that was a ground. I am trying to picture it. I can't remember... lol.. I will have to look at it on my lunch that is driving me crazy now.

by driveit Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:00 pm

ok. Should I take the ground loose on the battery before disconnecting it?

by driveit Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:01 pm

Also my multimeter may be shot, would a test light tell me the same thing? If it lights up, wouldn't that mean that it is bad as well?

by dynchel Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:01 pm

driveit wrote:Guess I thought that was a ground. I am trying to picture it. I can't remember... lol.. I will have to look at it on my lunch that is driving me crazy now.

Dude its 3:00, you haven't had lunch yet?

by driveit Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:04 pm

by thatfnthing Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:31 pm

driveit wrote:Also my multimeter may be shot, would a test light tell me the same thing? If it lights up, wouldn't that mean that it is bad as well?

Maybe, depending on how big the drain is. It's possible to have a drain that is big enough to kill the battery in a couple of days but not enough to light a test light. Meter will tell you more.

To be extra safe, disconnect the battery ground wire, hook up the meter like I mentioned earlier, then re-hook the battery ground and check the meter. This way you avoid shorts. But the battery ground must be hooked up for the test to work -- if it isn't, you don't have a complete circuit and the meter will always read zero.

by driveit Tue Sep 16, 2014 4:01 pm

k thanks.

by Wallyuph Wed Sep 17, 2014 9:59 am

He has a chrome high out out at idle one wire after market Alt on the car. I think he has hooked up his stereo to be hot all the time and that's what is draining his battery. Undo your wiring to the stereo and start over. One wire for the radio is a constant hot feed. The other is a keyed ignition wire hot when key is one. Just like I wanted you to do for your electric choke wire. If you have the radio hooked up hot all the time with key off that will drain your battery.

by driveit Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:14 am

The radio will not turn on with the car off, I tried that before and it went dead over night. Bad idea! Currently I have one wire for the memory hooked up to be hot at all times. The power wire to turn on the radio will not turn on until the car is started or the is turned on. If I drive it everyday there is no issue at all. It only happened when I let it set 4 days without driving it. ( I was out of gas and had to wait til payday) lol

by driveit Wed Sep 17, 2014 10:15 am

Funny how someone else know more about my set than me. lol I'm learning. Thanks Wally!

by thatfnthing Wed Sep 17, 2014 11:32 am

It sounds like it's hooked up correctly -- constant hot for memory, and ignition hot for actual operation. The unit will draw a lot of power when you are actually using it, but the constant hot is only for maintaining presets when the car is off, and therefore only needs a trickle of juice -- we're talking milliamps here, which is not anywhere near enough to drain a battery in a couple days unless something is seriously wrong with the unit.

Easy enough to test, though -- disconnect the radio constant hot and see if the problem goes away.

Although, the mention of the choke wire begs another question: did you hook this up maybe to a constant hot instead of an ignition hot? The choke wire should only have juice when the car is on, and having it on even when the car is off could rack up significant battery drain. It will also make the car hard to start when it is cold, as the choke is already open...

by driveit Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:48 pm

Choke is busted on my current carb. I am hoping after my daughters bday this week that I will have some time to swap the parts from the other carb over to this one and try to run a wire. I plan to run it to the same one that the radio memory it connected to. Do you think that would be ok or is that too much on the one connection?

by Joe73 Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:57 pm

Radio memory goes to constant hot. The choke wire should go to keyed hot.

by driveit Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:44 pm

Sorry, had that backwards. I meant that I would wire it to the same as the stereo not the memory. Now I am getting confused... lol I need to go roll the windows down and lay some rubber on the blacktop...

I am starting to think about just gutting the whole thing and going stock car no stereo. No electronics. Or maybe ripping out all of the wiring and starting over like my uncle used to for a derby car. push button start and all. Might even cut some holes in the hood and turn my headers upside down stick out through the hood. Put some of those flappers on there so rain don't get in when its sittin still. What do you think?

by switchbiker Sun Sep 28, 2014 2:48 am

no no, please don't do the header flip and pushbutton starter mentioned above. Wink

lol.

Regarding the choke, if you're not sure the circuit will handle the extra current draw, it's fairly easy to wire up a relay to reduce the current draw on that particular circuit.

by dynchel Sun Sep 28, 2014 9:18 pm

Driveit's day dreaming and build thread. - Page 9 IMG_20140928_145546984_HDR_zpsf4nls0af

Here Chris this should give you some inspiration. pirat

2014-09-28

by driveit Mon Sep 29, 2014 2:40 pm

Dude, that thing is bad... I love it! You know what? I'd driveit! lol That is kind of the look I am going for with mine. Can't tell how low it is, but I want to be able to drive over speed bumps without worry. Man I like that... My son Jacob would too, he loves green.

by dynchel Mon Sep 29, 2014 2:48 pm

I thought you would like it. It had green l.e.d. halo's also. BTW a small block with a electronic fan looks verrrry small in the engine compartment of a first gen Monte.

by driveit Mon Sep 29, 2014 3:33 pm

Guess you would just have to add more "bling" to the front of the motor to offset the negative space! For the record I don't normally use the word bling, but I heard a commentator at an auction say it about an engine on velocity this morning while I was eating breakfast.

by driveit Mon Oct 13, 2014 2:28 pm

Ok, so I have not done anything to my car since the brake replacement on the rear and rewiring a little on the stereo. I think it is time the old girl got a little attention. It looks like I am up for a nice sunny weekend in the high 60s to low 70s and finally dry. Will be a good change for a few days before more rain. Here is the plan.

Give her a good cleaning inside and out.
Detail the engine compartment again.
Wire brush and paint ceiling.
Reattach Review mirror (yeah still not fixed that!)
Re-sink rear bumper and tack it in this time!
Re-seal windshield and rear glass.
Repaint Wheels.

Check for rear sway bar on parts car. Don't think it has one, but I have never really crawled under it to look.

I still need a drivers matching seatbelt set in black and at least 1 of a set of braces for the engine compartment. I think my family threw one away by mistake after I moved out of my Mom's house. Sad

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