Battery Drain questions 1967 289 V8 289 2b

[mustang sally]

Ok you guys are going to really regret letting me in this group!

I love this car. And I almost love it even more when it's acting up.

So yesterday, drove around a bit. Parked it, came out and ...click, click click of the starter and no battery. Took the battery out ran it over to the charger...crickets coming out of the charger - charger was broken.

Left the battery hooked to it anyway on the off chance my willing it to work would make it magically charge anyway - went in a few hours later, put the battery back in and presto she started right up.

Tonight, found the multimeter and checked voyage - 11.84 with the car off. I don't have alligator clips on my meter and didn't have a buddy to test load with the car on.

Did the parasitic draw test instead and got 0.00 -

It did start tonight but it was a slow crank at first - not the same immediate firing up as before.

In troubleshooting, should i have gotten a new battery charger and charged the battery fully before trying the draw test. Or is the voltage 11.84 close enough to have let me know if I was having a draw issue.

Thinking bad battery ...? When my friend comes over I can do some further tests and doing a bunch of research on testing other things like the alternator and voltage regulator. But maybe I just got a bad battery - I believe its' a few months old - Napa battery. What were the odds its' bad already?

I know I know, when they say there is no such thing as a stupid question... maybe there actually is.

Thank for putting up with me. LOL

[ZR]

Need to confirm battery is ok before assuming anything about the car.
Next, all connections related to the battery cleaned spotless (pos and neg at battery plus solenoid and grounds at engine plous body grounds) then test charging system.
Regardless of how it tests, if your running an old skool external alt set up, dump for a newer / more reliable / charges better single wire upgrade.

[ZR]

FYI.........drain test done with volt meter (vs amp meter) is 100% reliable.

[mustang sally]

Thanks ZR - I believe I switched to the amp setting when doing the draw test. Will check all the connections - I cleaned the battery terminals and the connections were loose. Tightened them but didn't seem to improve matters. Will check the rest tomorrow. Thanks again.

[Old Fart]

11.84 volts is too low. It should be at least 12.3 +. I would get a good battery charger and charge it up. What was the battery voltage with the car running?

[mustang sally]

Thanks Old Fart - I couldn't check the voltage with it running as I was by myself and didn't have clips to hold the meter on with - but I will pick these up tomorrow. I am thinking it should be over 13 on fast idle?

[ZR]

Yup, battery needs to be up to snuff before checking alt.

[Old Fart]

Thanks Old Fart - I couldn't check the voltage with it running as I was by myself and didn't have clips to hold the meter on with - but I will pick these up tomorrow. I am thinking it should be over 13 on fast idle?

What I meant was... checking voltage at the battery with the car running.

[mustang sally]

Sorry Mike, I misunderstood there for a sec,

yes, I was planning on doing the running tests this morning before work and this morning the battery is dead (palm plant to head). Thinking I will replace my also dead battery charger and go from there.

[mustang sally]

Y'know these are the things I wish I had had a dad around for growing up - well dad's because they are more associated with these things.

But it's never too late to learn right!
took the battery out of the car to charge it to eliminate any 'distractions'. Since it was late I left the battery out of the car in a protected garage.
It read 12.5 last night and then 12.2 this am. I charged it back to 12.5, took it to the car, installed, turned the key and no go - no starter sound but I tried radio and the radio and dome lights and they went on as normal.

Shut it off, checked the connections under the hood - retried and then nothing, not even dome lights or radio. Put it in neutral to try and same.

Headed out shortly to check again to see what the voltage is in the battery now and then trace a bit to make sure I have ground.

I don't have a second person here to start it while I check the voltage so I will trace what I can.

And here I wondered what I would be doing for fun this summer. ; )

[Old Fart]

Possibly a bad solenoid. Check and clean all solenoid connections. The small wire is the one from the ignition switch. If the connection is bad it will not allow voltage to go to the starter. Also, if the battery is losing the voltage you stated while it's disconnected, I would suspect the battery might be bad.

[mustang sally]

Thanks Mike - Ok going to do that as well - Thank you.

It's possible a few things went bad at the same time - yes, the battery dropped while not connected cause I wanted to make sure there was no draw - so I am thinking I might have a couple things happening at once since there was no radio or even dome light.

I will update when I have more info. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[mustang sally]

Hey Guys,

So here’s the latest in my troubleshooting so far:

So before I charged the brand new battery it was reading 11.8
I charged it to 12.5
I took it off the charger overnight and let it sit in my garage out of the car and in the am it was 12.2

I charged it again to 12.5 - put it in the car and ….crickets… not even a starter but the dome light and radio were working.
Shut the car off and then tried restart.
Then nothing, not even dome light or radio and all electrical went off.

Measured the battery current - 12.2v
Took off the negative terminal and searched for ground to make sure I had proper ground - left the positive on and found a couple of places to ground the meter. Got
0.00 readings.

So took apart the wires and cables on the solenoid and put them all back on - grabbed a bunch of wire and wiggled them all - poked around at the voltage regulator without removing it etc. Reconnected the battery again.

Got in the car and got a dome, it fired right up.

I jumped out and checked the voltage on the battery while the car was running and it was 12.05 and I thought ‘ahah!! the alternator is the problem - but then when I turned the car off I checked the battery voltage again and it was 12.18 - which could account for the low alternator reading…

So later today I will try everything again because I might have a couple of things at the same time: a bad battery as it doesn't seem to be holding the charge even out of the car plus perhaps loose wire somewhere or bad around somewhere.

I am also researching 'usable links' in case that's an option to consider.

Now I am pondering how to trouble shoot a car that is actually working - it's almost easier when it's not starting to troubleshoot!

Classic cars, I love this stuff...
...so far...

[mustang sally]

I am also researching 'usable links' in case that's an option to consider

fusable links - damn you auto correct

[Old Fart]

If your car was running with an alternator discharge of 12.05 volts, seems the alternator might be bad. Alternator should put out at least 13 volts even with a low battery.

[mustang sally]

Ahhh ok, thanks Mike - I didn't realize the alternator output should be 13 regardless of the low battery. That's very good to know.

I am still stumped by not having any power to the dome light and the radio even at 12.2 volts from the battery - it was like there was no battery in at all.

So I may have a few things going on at the same time.

Thanks Mike - this information is good to help me isolate the problems and identify the factors.