The Prince lives on

[19_again]

Well here's another fine mess. I took Mr B out last weekend, had a nice drive and parked in the garage. As is my habit I always check the gas gauge when I pass by the car just to see if the battery is still ok. it was fine up until Wed., when it was dead. Hadn't taken it out since the weekend, nothing left on. This has happened once before. I put the jumper to it, the gas gauge cam eback to life, turned the key and he started right up. Ran about ten minutes, and died. Dead Battery. Ignition light comes on at low rpms, goes off as rpms increase. New harness going in over winter, but concerned it may be something else. Could bad alternator cause slow drain?
BTW here's the pix I've been promising.
https://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1938735
Mike

 

[Adam58]

I would do this in this order:

1. Test the battery. A hydrometer should cost you about $5 at Pep Boys or the equivalent. All cells s/b close. If one is much below the others. The battery is toast. (If they are all low, you may have to put it on the charger for a while to see which one does NOT come up.)

2. If they are all low, Use a volt meter across the battery CLAMPS. You should have around 12.5 volts. Then measure across the battery POSTS. They should be EXACTLY the same. If all looks okay there, repeat that step but have someone hit the starter and repeat the above sequence.The voltage will drop but again, it should be same regardless of where you measure it. If they are different, see which side is causing it. Pull the clamp off, and clean and reassemble it. Repeat all of this if you can see where the cables come out of the clamps as well as that interface meay be corroded as well. (The idea is that there should not be any measureable resistance in the connections at all and the starter draw should show it up right away.)

3. If you get the car to start, see if the voltage across the battery comes up to about 13.5 - 14.0 volts when the alternator light is out. If not, take out and get it tested. Most parts houses (PB, Kragen, etc) have test fixtures and they don't charge you test them.

4. If all of those things don't solve your problem, then look for high resistance connections (causing poor charging) in the charging circuit or a short (causing a drain) anywhere else.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

 

[jlaird]

Oh boy, here is another that needs to go in the reference file in the WIWI.

 

[vping]

Have you thought about a battery cut off switch? Nice looking B.

 

[19_again]

Thanks Vinnie,
I still can't believe that I'm driving a B again, and to have it be virtually the same car (66 vs 65) that I had as a real kid is a dream come true. Wait til the bodywork is done, it won't be a cream colored masterpiece like Tony's TD, but it will be a looker.
I bought a cut off switch last winter while I was waiting for the car to be shipped up, but it's one of those big ones and won't fit under the cover. The other flat ones are cheap enough, but I need to figure out what's causing it. It's too much fun to drive, and with the switch installed it becomes out of sight out of mind.
I'll try Adam's suggestions this week, it's going into shop very soon. New Harness, bumpers f&r, windshield, mirrors, seat stuffing,grill, headlights,door skins, and paint. same Tartan Red.

 

[vping]

Someone suggested the switch to me and brought one over for me to add. I'll be putting it on the rear parcel shelf so I can rear back and shut it off when I get out of the car. I don't think I have a drain anywhere but it's cheap insurance if'n I start to hear bacon frying.

 

[19_again]

HMMM, maybe an idea is forming.

 

[Kimberly]

Well here's another fine mess. I took Mr B out last weekend, had a nice drive and parked in the garage. As is my habit I always check the gas gauge when I pass by the car just to see if the battery is still ok. it was fine up until Wed., when it was dead. Hadn't taken it out since the weekend, nothing left on. This has happened once before. I put the jumper to it, the gas gauge cam eback to life, turned the key and he started right up. Ran about ten minutes, and died. Dead Battery. Ignition light comes on at low rpms, goes off as rpms increase. New harness going in over winter, but concerned it may be something else. Could bad alternator cause slow drain?
BTW here's the pix I've been promising.
https://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?folder_id=1938735
Mike

The gas gauge is part of the green circuit and shouldn't have power when the car is off.

 

[jlaird]

Every thing should be off when the ign is off. No gas guage, no temp guage, etc etc.

Surely hope you ment you turn on the Ign to check the gas.

 

[19_again]

There's the problem!!! The gas gauge does stay on, that's gotta be part of the drain. Temp gauge is off, but gas gauge stays on. Horn and lights will also work with no ignition. Jack, have you come to the rescue once again?

 

[jlaird]

All should be off when Ign is off, crossed wireing someplace. Would look at what is connected where to the ign switch first. Stuff is hooked to hot side and should be on switched side.

Mean while, here is a trick. There is a smaller wire from the loom to the battery positive terminal. Cut it, and strip ends and connect with an electrictans wire nut. Now you have a relative easy way to cut all power to the loom and a nice quick disconnect for a street car.

Bingo you car is even useable till you get it sorted out and battery will stay up.

 

[19_again]

The lights and horn should work when ign is off, shouldn't they? Always thought so anyways.

 

[jlaird]

Yeh, guess they should at that.

 

[Adam58]

Good catch, Jack! The answer was in the question and I looked right past it!

 

[19_again]

Adam, Jack has helped me a few times in this fashion. No offense but until Jack weighs in, I wait to act. His most reliable answers are the ones where he says "I dunno" /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif . Your answers were the right ones to a typical question and I'm sure it's a pretty common problem of us vs. the Prince and will be put to use by me and others sooner or later and the number of readers who read the question testifies to that. Thanks to the forum for coming through once again. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grouphug.gif
Mike