- This topic has 12 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated May 9, 2005 at 8:21 pm by
Bud & Donna Elliott.
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May 4, 2005 at 1:23 am #56430
hey guys,
this is probably one of my last problems that i have on the tiger so far. But some how some where some thing, is makin the battery go dead. And its not from starting the car so much. I think drains it when the car is off, like overnight. And i know for sure that it drains when we are driving the car. And the generator is doin its job and is charging very well, cuz the gauge is all the way on the + side. And i dont have the switch on acces. But someone at the parts store was talkin about a fusable link?? that might be bad o something?
Well any suggestions that i can look at??
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May 4, 2005 at 12:08 pm #59161
This will not be an easy one to find. Make sure that everything is turned off. Disconnect the ground cable from the battery. Hook one side of a 12 volt lightbulb like a tailight bulb to the ground cable of the battery and connect the other end of the lightbulb to the negative side of the battery. The light should not come on. If it does, that means that there is a voltage drain somewhere on your car-and that is what is running down the battery. To find out what is making the light come on, you will have to disconnect things one at a time. Start with the radio, then the clock, wiper motor, heater blower motor, etc, one at a time until the light goes out and then you found the problem. Now you see why good electrical repair guys make about $80/hour!! Have fun… Eric
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May 4, 2005 at 12:48 pm #59164
hey eric,
thanks for the info. I will try the light bulb trick. When i asked a part man at the local shop, he was thinking about a fusable link. Now i dont know what this is, is there one even in a Tiger? Some one else was talking about the clock. Now the clock hasnt worked for ever, and the radio is off completely. So what else is draining the battery? What could be? Is there anything that isnt going threw fuses?
This one will be hard yes i admit. What is can be on?? Or does something not need to be on to drain the battery? How can it??
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May 5, 2005 at 6:42 am #59166
When you hook up the positive cable on your car to your battery, you’re hooking up electricity to a network of wires that are isolated from the rest of the car. When you turn something on in the car, the circuit is completed and electricity flows thru the entire system making whateve you turned on work. When one of these wires “shorts,” which is the cause of battery drains, that simply means that one of the “isolated” positive wires is coming into contact somewhere with the rest of the car, or the negative side of the car. When this happens, you actually have positive electricity on the “negative” side of the car, the “negative” side being the body of the car and everything else that isn’t an “isolated” positive wire. The “trick” Eric described above (inserting a 12 volt light that you can buy most anywhere for $5 ) between the negative battery terminal and the negative battery cable) tells you if a positive wire is touching somewhere it shouldn’t. If the light lights, then you have positive electricity on the negative side, or an electrical “short,” since the light should not be in a complete circuit and thus light, if there’s no positive energy on the negative side of the car. If the light lights, then you know there’s a short and it becomes a matter of finding which wire.
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May 6, 2005 at 12:45 pm #59178
ok i got a update on the battery situation. I norrowed it down to one fuse side. Its the Left side if your on the side of the fuse box. Or the side with the horns map light ….etc…… But i had everything off except one horn. And it still was making a spark. Very small spark, but it still made one. So do you think it could be that horn? It worked normal when i hit the horn button. I also had the horn button unplugged when i did the test too. So it must me that horn, or it is something else that is touchin that fuse some place or something.
I also didnt realize that i had a 15amp fuse in. Someone was saying that if you have too little that it wont blow cuz its so small but it wouldnt let enough power threw to make like a discharge or something. But i changed that to 2 30s cuz they dont make 35 ne more. Or they didnt have any.
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May 6, 2005 at 12:46 pm #59179
ohh and i did the light test, where you put a light in between the ground wire and the ground terminal. And it didnt light up. And i did that on the positive side too. And still no light up. What is going on here
sorry for the 2 replies
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May 6, 2005 at 2:28 pm #59180
Have you tried testing with both the horns on? I always go from testing to “The Final Solution.” Which is…Go purchase the cheapest, slowest trickle charger you can find and plug it up overnight every few days.
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May 8, 2005 at 10:04 pm #59200
Hi Joe
Are you sure you have a good battery? Is the ground connection good and clean to the battery? Is the engine/tranny ground strap in place?
Just more things to check!! Eric -
May 9, 2005 at 1:28 pm #59204
i dont want to have to charge the battery every few days, thats kinda dumb. But i think i fixed the problem. It dosent drain anymore. I replaced the coil, so that might have been it. And yes the battery is new. Its only 3 months old. And i cleaned the ground for it before. But what is a tranny strap? Where is taht? I can check that.
Thanks guys
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May 9, 2005 at 3:47 pm #59205
Look around the rear of the transmission-you should see a braided ground strap around there that fastens to the body of the car. Eric
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May 9, 2005 at 5:00 pm #59206
My ground strap bolts to the slave cylinder bracket on the bell housing. This ground strap is VERY important. Except for some very small gauge wires, it is the only thing that actually grounds the engine. I have seen the smaller ground wires melt down when cranking a hot engine without the braided ground attached.
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May 9, 2005 at 8:14 pm #59210
ok, i did replace the slave cylindar in my resto, and im pretty sure that i got that on good, But i will check. And tighten if needed. Is there a certain metal that this cable should be touching?
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May 9, 2005 at 8:21 pm #59211
On the drivers side frame, near the slave cylinder, are some threaded holes used, I believe, for the Alpine trans mount. If there is no cable at all, just buy the proper length cable (About the same gauge as the battery cables) with the proper connectors so you can bolt it to the frame and one of the bell housing bolts or slave cylinder bracket. You will need to scrape or sand the surface on the frame to make sure you get a good connection. If the bell housing and/or slave cylinder bracket are not painted, you should just be able to clean the surface and be hot to go.
If you think about it, the engine’s only attachment to the car is via rubber mounts. The cable is necessary for a good engine ground.Happy Motoring
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