59 battery drain - I tried a lot

[Brad K.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

I, like John, had an issue with battery drain immediately after I restored my '59 (with a new wiring harness). I had the car at Bloomington this summer and confessed I had the issue, to a judge. He noticed my fuel gauge and ammeter were still hot after I removed the key. I hadn't noticed before as I had just completed the car. He had seen the problem before and told me to switch one lead on the back of the ignition switch from an unswitched post to the remaining switched post. Imagine my embarassment when the problem immediately went away.

It's worth a look....

[Brad K.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

I, like John, had an issue with battery drain immediately after I restored my '59 (with a new wiring harness). I had the car at Bloomington this summer and confessed I had the issue, to a judge. He noticed my fuel gauge and ammeter were still hot after I removed the key. I hadn't noticed before as I had just completed the car. He had seen the problem before and told me to switch one lead on the back of the ignition switch from an unswitched post to the remaining switched post. Imagine my embarassment when the problem immediately went away.

It's worth a look....

[Richard M.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

Ah good point! When I put my new engine harness in last year I did the exact same thing but noticed it right away and swapped the wire(the only one I forgot to mark!).

Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

Ah good point! When I put my new engine harness in last year I did the exact same thing but noticed it right away and swapped the wire(the only one I forgot to mark!).

Rich

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

So the status thus far:

disconnected horn relay entirely. no change
disconnected clock. no change
connected ammeter ground to two red wire terminal, to bypass. no change
disconnected all ignition wires and no power, so reconnected the battery and ammeter wires and got power, but still the battery draw

regarding the brake lights I don't see them on...

Also, the guy I bought it from installed an amp for the radio (wonderbar, but with new guts to run AM/FM. I pulled out all the wiring for that since I don't want to have mega-bass in my classic corvette anyway :P, and saw the mA go down like 7 mA, but sometimes the multimeter reads 1.99 amps sometimes goes higher, previously was 1.85 mA. So I'm worried I have a short in the wires...

All that's left from Rich's list is the starter. I'll try that next.

I also bought a battery tester light to be sure I wasn't misinterpreting the multimeter and the light goes on; so I'm not crazy

Thanks all for your help so far! Any other wild guesses?

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

So the status thus far:

disconnected horn relay entirely. no change
disconnected clock. no change
connected ammeter ground to two red wire terminal, to bypass. no change
disconnected all ignition wires and no power, so reconnected the battery and ammeter wires and got power, but still the battery draw

regarding the brake lights I don't see them on...

Also, the guy I bought it from installed an amp for the radio (wonderbar, but with new guts to run AM/FM. I pulled out all the wiring for that since I don't want to have mega-bass in my classic corvette anyway :P, and saw the mA go down like 7 mA, but sometimes the multimeter reads 1.99 amps sometimes goes higher, previously was 1.85 mA. So I'm worried I have a short in the wires...

All that's left from Rich's list is the starter. I'll try that next.

I also bought a battery tester light to be sure I wasn't misinterpreting the multimeter and the light goes on; so I'm not crazy

Thanks all for your help so far! Any other wild guesses?

[Richard M.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

Wow, I thought one of them would've been the culprit.

....But now the radio has me wondering again. Are you sure all of it's wires are disconnected? If it's a conversion he may have a unfused hot lead going to it to keep the clock running. Set the clock(NOT 12:00), pull the fuse for a minute, then reconnect. If the clock stays on time that's it.

If not the radio or the starter solenoid, and nothing else is drawing, I'd have to say it's the battery. Is the top clean? Is the shield on? Dirt/corrosion on the metal causing a high resistance short? It's a longshot but it appears you've eliminated everything and the only thing left is the "source".

Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

Wow, I thought one of them would've been the culprit.

....But now the radio has me wondering again. Are you sure all of it's wires are disconnected? If it's a conversion he may have a unfused hot lead going to it to keep the clock running. Set the clock(NOT 12:00), pull the fuse for a minute, then reconnect. If the clock stays on time that's it.

If not the radio or the starter solenoid, and nothing else is drawing, I'd have to say it's the battery. Is the top clean? Is the shield on? Dirt/corrosion on the metal causing a high resistance short? It's a longshot but it appears you've eliminated everything and the only thing left is the "source".

Rich

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

yeah I bought a new battery this weekend, cause the other one was sulphated (sat for a year). So the battery should be good. It just got all charged up with my trusty battery tender.

the radio has a coupler on it and I pulled the coupler so I *think* it is completely isolated now, but I will recheck.

nexts step is the starter so I will need to either get under the car or use a mirror to bypass it like you suggested.

I also bought a little voltage detector pen that detects down to 1.5 volts, but I guess that's the wrong way to check for shorts, as it detects voltage even on the bumper I guess as soon as you ground it it lights up

I read there's a tool I can get that will detect shorts in wires. You ever heard of such a thing? I saw a connectless clamp at home depot but it only detects AC current...

thanks for all your help!

[Dave Thornton]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

JC Whitney sells a short circuit finder.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Search?catalogId=10101&storeId=10101&sku=short+circuit&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

You may find one at your local auto parts store too. I can't vouch for it as I never used one, but it sounds interesting.

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

I took a close look at the starter and I found out it isn't original. It is a 1969 1108427 for "350 Cubic-Inch Engines with Turbo Hydra-Matic". Guess I'll be looking for a new starter eventually

anyway, I don't see a battery ground on the solenoid. The battery cable goes to the center post and the red wire (spliced to black above) is also attached there. The 12ga black one (spliced to violet above) is on a side post marked "S". I see another side post marked "R" with nothing on it - this appears to be where a missing 18ga dark green one on the wiring diagram should be, that goes to the ballast resistor.

I see two dark green wires on the ballast resistor like it shows on the diagram, one going into the firewall and the other to the positive terminal of the coil, but not one from the starter to the ballast resistor.

I removed the battery cable and black wire, spliced them, covered them in electrical tape and tested the mA and its still above 200 mA Could the missing ground be causing the draw? The AIM indicates a ground strap should attach to the starter motor at a mounting bolt where the crankcase vent tube is, but the wiring diagram shows it connected to the solenoid. Can you or someone send me a pic of what it should look like, or verify I'm understanding this correctly? I'm hoping this is the problem.

I imagine the engine won't start without that green wire...I haven't tried starting the engine yet, since I have no water in the radiator (replaced the after market radiator with an original and haven't got a cap yet :P

Sorry I'm pretty clueless. I've never done anything with electrical before, just rebuilt a couple carburetors

[John H.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

Ian -

You'll need that green wire from the "R" terminal on the starter solenoid to the same terminal on the ballast resistor that has the wire to the coil (+) on it; that green wire feeds a full 12 volts to the coil when the starter is cranking. There are no grounds on the solenoid (the wiring diagram illustration is incorrect); the battery ground strap goes to the outboard starter-to-bellhousing attaching bolt.

[Ian G.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

I see a hole in the frame cross bar near where the ground strap would connect to the outboard starter/bellhousing bolt. Seems like a likely place to connect it?

[Ian G.]

cheaper short finder

I scrounged and found one 10 bucks cheaper at eastwoodco.com:

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1378&itemType=PRODUCT

Thanks for the heads up!

[John H.]

Re: 59 battery drain - I tried a lot

Ian -

Nope - the heavy ground strap (negative battery cable) goes direct from the negative terminal to the starter attaching bolt.