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73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Electrical => Topic started by: hondarider188 on November 27, 2012, 07:15:59 PM
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I have a 1983 Chevy k10 silverado my battery suddenly went dead after just a couple of days. It has never done it before until now after it has been cold for a few weeks. I cant find anything that is on no light or radio. The battery is new, the last owner put it in a couple of months ago. I traded out the battery for a old one i had and it started the truck right up so i plugged it in to charge overnight, then this morning i unplugged it.When i went back out tonight the battery was once again dead.just barely to push over one small crank and then to just kick on the starter. The battery is still reading a full 12 volts. So any ideas.
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Bad battery. It can have full 12 volts but no amps. It has a bad cell.
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really even though its a fairly new battery. And i Replaced it with another one, but the (another) battery is an old one out of my dads truck but still seemed to have a good holding on the charge but maybe not with the cold weather anymore.
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Pretty sure that new battery has a dead cell. Vibration, temperature extremes or just a lemon, even new batteries can have bad cells.
Most parts stores and even some places like Walmart can test your battery with a load. Voltage is only part of the story. Without the amperage the battery can do no work. A dead \ shorted cell will kill the amperage.
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The only way to know for sure is have the battery load tested somewhere that can check it. With a full 12 v charge they can check to see if when a load is applied it has no staying power per say.
If they check it and say that it checks out ok ( it could be you have 2 bad batteries, but not my guess right now), then something on your truck is draining the batteries. Direct short, something you overlooked, etc.
If batteries are good then you will have to do a draw test on your truck when everything is off and see if power is getting drained off somehow, and find out where it is. Shorts can be frustrating and take some time to find out where they are.
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I did do a draw test already and i my test light wasnt sensitive enough so i went to the multimeter and it couldnt pick up anything either. And i Know the multimeter does work , because my tracker does for sure have a draw and it picked it up at half of an amp. For the second battery I didnt have high hopes for it, because it is atleast a year old from when my dad replaced it so it wasnt the beast choice to begin with. So where can i go to have the battery tested and is it free at like checker?
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I am not where checker is, but most auto parts places can do the test. I always start talking to the guys and find out, usually it is free because they want you to buy their battery.
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Just hook the meter to it and turn on the headlights, that should provide enough amp draw to let you know if the battery is good or not. It shouldn't drop much.
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thanks for the help and i will try the headlight test tomorrow, but how much can i expect to drop. I did talk to walmart and the battery is under a 2 year warranty and they will test it for free, but the only issue i might have as that the last owner bought the battery just a few months before i bought the truck so naturally i have no reciept. Today i went to try and start it with the old battery i had laying around and it to was dead from overnight, so i brought out the original and "new" battery and it started the truck right up with no problems even though i never charged it and it appeared to be dead the day before, the only thing different was that it sat in the garage for the day.
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Hmmmm... May be loose or corroded battery wires.
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Well yesterday I spent all afternoon working on the truck while starting and running lights and radio and never seemed to phase the battery especially since I ran radio for quite a while without the engine. Then this morning I went to start it after a cold night of 20 degrees it cranked the engine right over quite a bit until I started it. So maybe I just had the cables loose, but I don't know I'll give it a few days and see if I'm back where I started.
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Each cell in a (automotive, starting, lead-acid type) battery is 2.1 volts when fully charged. So, when a 12.6 volt battery gets a cell short (dead cell) it drops the voltage to 10.5 volts. Another defect that will make your battery non-functional is when one of the internal welds between the cells fails. (Broken inter-cell connector.) This is usually a manufacturing defect, but it can also occur in vehicles that see heavy off-road usage, or happen during a wreck.
When you load test a battery with a cell short, the shorted cell will "boil", and the other five cells won't. The voltage drops very rapidly, too. If you have a broken inter-cell connector, when you load test the battery, the voltage will almost immediately fall to zero or near-zero, and there is an audible sound from inside the battery, caused by the current trying to jump across the gap created by the broken weld.
I used to work for a battery distributor, so I thought I'd share a little sumthin' sumthin' that I learned there. :)
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Sounds like it might be what roger97338 described with one of the internal welds broken. Might be why sometimes it is fine and sometimes it is on the fritz.
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I had a van with a similar problem. Turned out to be a bad diode in the alternator that was leaking enough back current to kill the battery over night. I found it by putting my multitester on amps and watching the current drain as i disconnected all the electrical circuits. When everything but the alternator was disconnected i still had about a 2 amp drain. I picked up a new alternator and all is well.
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Well the other day i took out the multimeter and tested the voltage of the battery and it read a full 12.5 volts. Then i flipped on headlights like silverj suggested and it dropped only to 12 volts, but i don't know if that actually means anything because shouldn't i be testing for amps or does it even matter?
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Your battery is fine, you need to look elsewhere, if your battery was bad when you checked voltage with the lights on the voltage would drop significantly. I would take a good look at your connections at the battery and your grounds. Could be something like the starter having a bad spot in it too.
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I had a problem like this not to long ago. The battery has been draining down on me for a while. Was charging fine while driving but during the night the dash voltage meter would show around 11 volts. Let her sit for 2 days and it was sitting around 10. So Friday I decided to start finding the cause, even tho when it comes to electrical I'm not the brightest bulb shining. Put it on a charger and brought it up to a full charge the night before and disconnected the alternator to eliminate a bad diode creating a drain. Friday morning it was low again so the alternator wasn't to blame. Brought it back up to full charge again. Pulled the power wire from the stereo (aftermarket) since it draws enough power to keep the clock set. I used a test light instead of a meter so I wouldn't have to be standing over the meter to see what was going on. I disconnected the negative battery cable and connected the test light leads between the - post and the cable end. The light lit up which meant I did have an open circuit somewhere. Watching the light, I started pulling fuses. Still lit. Pulled relays to fans and fuel pump. Nothing yet. To simplify things, instead of getting under the seat and pulling the fuses from the stereo amps I just unhooked the power wires from the junction box. The light went out! Hooked one of them back up and no light. Unhooked that one and then the other. The light came back on. Thought maybe the wires running under the carpet might have rubbed thru somewhere so I ran some temporary wires and hooked it back up. The light was back on again. So something inside the amp has a problem that was keeping a constant draw on the battery. So until I find out why the amp is doing this I just left it unplugged. Battery hasn't skipped a beat since.
Hope your problem is something as simple as this.
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well i cant find a draw on the engine with either a test light or a multimeter. I took the battery into walmart and checker and they both tested it. and said that it was fine. so I just dont know.
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I have a 1983 Chevy k10 silverado my battery suddenly went dead after just a couple of days. It has never done it before until now after it has been cold for a few weeks. I cant find anything that is on no light or radio. The battery is new, the last owner put it in a couple of months ago. I traded out the battery for a old one i had and it started the truck right up so i plugged it in to charge overnight, then this morning i unplugged it.When i went back out tonight the battery was once again dead.just barely to push over one small crank and then to just kick on the starter. The battery is still reading a full 12 volts. So any ideas.
Thought I would start from the beginning since I'm a bit confused. You say it is dead but then say it has full volts. So the battery actually has the voltage but just acts like a dead one when trying to start? A fully charged battery will read about 12.6 volts with a volt meter. If it reads 12.4 or less, it is low.
And using the test light, you only disconnected the negative cable from the battery. And then connected one lead of the light to the negative post on the battery and the other lead to the cable end. And the light still didn't flicker or light up?
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Electrical shorts are a pain in the ?. Sounds like you have a ghost short and the only way to find it is to track it down, one system at a time.
I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but I had a blazer once that had a ghost short, it took me a couple of months going back and forth to find the actual problem.
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Thanks coggedbelt i didnt connect the test light from the negative to the cable. What i did was connect the negative post to the frame and I always thought that was how you tested for a draw on battery. Anyway i tried what you suggested and the light did come on. I also hooked up the multimeter and the battery it self read 12.3 volts which i did expect because i've been running and testing the lights all afternoon. When i hooked it up to the negative post and the cable i was getting a reading of 12.1 so pretty much all that my battery is putting out. So does this mean that i do indead have a draw?
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Yes, if the light came on hooking it up as I described then you do have something drawing power. Leaving it hooked up like stated, begin pulling fuses one at a time until the light goes off. I would disconnect the alternator first to eliminate a bad diode pulling the power. Then the fuses and any relays you may have. Sooner or later you will find the circuit that is causing this. As I found out for myself, it is time consuming and frustrating task (especially when I really don't know much about electrical troubleshooting) for sure but it has to be done. Let us know how you come out on this.
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Checking in to see if you made any progress.
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Yeah i have made a little, but been sick so trying to stay rested. I did eliminate the alternator and i did find at least one of my draws which is the radio, because for some weird reason the radio has no power supply in the fuse panel to the last owner made a Y connection into the horn power so then i had no horn. So to get my horn back i plugged the radio into the accesory power supply so im assuming that is one of my draws. for the other one yet i dont know for the test light was pretty bright and now its dull so one more to find.
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I feel your pain as I've been home 3 days with the flu. Keep in mind that most newer radios will draw a small amount of power for memory or the clock. I yours does, keep it unplugged while testing. Sooner or later the light will stay dark, then all will be good.
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well I finally found the source of the draw. So yesterday i was feeling pretty good and decided to go out and work on the battery issue so i pulled all the fuses and it still didnt go out. So i tried the fog lights which have a inline fuse, but still no luck. So i decided to try the alternator again just for kix and what do you know the light went out. So now it looks like i need a new alternator. And the only reason i didnt spot it before was because the radio pulling to I wasnt able to notice the alternator going out. So now my next question is that how many amps should i be looking for the new alternator to put out?
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Glad you found it. I would go ahead and take the alternator to the parts store and have them test it. If it is in fact the diode trio, you could replace it yourself and save a whole bunch of money. Only costs around 5 bucks for the part.
As for what amp if you replace the alternator, unless you have added several things that draw ALOT of amps, just get what originally came in the truck. I believe yours calls for 2 different ones, a 63 and a 78 amp. I would go with the 78.
Let us know how things are after the alternator is either fixed or replaced.
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well I finally found the source of the draw. So yesterday i was feeling pretty good and decided to go out and work on the battery issue so i pulled all the fuses and it still didnt go out. So i tried the fog lights which have a inline fuse, but still no luck. So i decided to try the alternator again just for kix and what do you know the light went out. So now it looks like i need a new alternator. And the only reason i didnt spot it before was because the radio pulling to I wasnt able to notice the alternator going out. So now my next question is that how many amps should i be looking for the new alternator to put out?
It always sucks when there is more than 1 problem, but now you have gained some great experience for the next time, or to help others with.
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thanks for the help and that makes me glad i can just replace the diode if that is what it turns out to be. Where can i get it tested at? does oreilly auto or autozone do it, or even walmart?
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Take the alternator to either the zone or o'reilly's and they will put it on their machine and test it for you. Costs nothing to do this. If it is a diode failure, if you feel comfortable breaking the case open, it's a simple matter of just swapping it out. But the windings could also be shorting also. In that case it will be time to replace the whole unit.
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ok how would i go about taking the alternator apart?
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I would hold off on doing that until you have it tested first. Only reason to go in is if the diode trio tests bad.
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Ok thanks for the help. Its been pretty busy so i'll let you know once i get it done.
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alright i finally got my alternator tested. And to my suprise it came back just fine. I still suspect the alternator for a few reasons. first it did come from a junk yard so odds are it doesnt work as being from a old truck already. Second the test i did for a draw showed it as the alternator. And third one I took the alternator off i noticed as i picked it up and carried it around the something was kind of bouncing or knocking inside. And even the guy at checker( where i had the alternator tested) said something about it and said even though the machine says it checks out it probably is still the alternator. So i think a may be buying a new alternator anyway.
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Let us know if you replace the alternator and it fixes the problem. I agree, even though the machine says it is ok ( it is only checking for a certain range of operation ), I would put on a new alternator and recheck the problem.
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if you ever want to test an alternator without taking it out of the truck... fire up the engine, then take off the positive terminal cable from the battery, if the engine continues to run then the alternator is fine.. if it shuts down, then there is a problem with the alternator... easy as that...
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Alright i will let you guys know when i get a new alternator, but it might be a little while i don't really have the extra money for one at the moment. And i did test the alternator by disconnecting the battery while the truck was running and it did stay running, but shouldn't that only test to see if the alternator is charging the battery while i have a draw coming off of the battery.
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Alright i will let you guys know when i get a new alternator, but it might be a little while i don't really have the extra money for one at the moment. And i did test the alternator by disconnecting the battery while the truck was running and it did stay running, but shouldn't that only test to see if the alternator is charging the battery while i have a draw coming off of the battery.
That checks to see if the alternator is putting out enough juice to keep the truck running. To check to see if the Alternator is charging the battery, You need a DC voltmeter.
Check your volts before you start your truck you should have around 12 V, Leave your positive and negative battery terminals Hooked up, And start your truck and check the positive and negative battery terminals on your battery it should go up to somewhere between 13 & 14 Volts.
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I am getting a new alternator I might try and do it today, but can i have an alternator that is still charging the battery but it is pulling a draw on the battery once it is shut off?
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ok i tested the battey on the DC scale and it read about 55 on the meter i was using when truck was started it read about 75 so the alternator does work in terms of charging the battery.
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i finally bought a new alternator and i got the 78 amp so i will have plenty their. But i really messed myself up when i took out the old one. When i was taking out the old alternator i was in a rush to get it out before it got dark and so i forgot all about to disconnect the battery, so when i was taking the positive cable hookup off of the alternator i accidentaly grounded it. Then i heard a pop and some smoke come up from the right( when facing the grill) side of the firewall. From their i realized i didnt unhook the battery and quickly did so and finished taking the old out and put the new in. So now I dont have any ignition power when i try to start the truck, what i mean by that is when i turn the key on nothing happens no lights clicks or anything. My hope is that i just blew the fuse sending power the ignition or somewhere at least. Anything that doesnt have to have the key on for power seems to be working alright. I also traced the wiring to the wire i grounded and heres where it came to. So is this a fuse or not and if so what size and where do i get a new one. thanks. well never mind on the picture its to large sorry it looks like a junction box maybe.
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So I got the alternator and replaced the fusible link and now its all working good and charging the battery. I still need to get a new battery though anyway, because with this very cold weather of -15*F at night ant a high of 3-4*F during day the battery in it doesnt hold up to well. Its also about 2 sizes to small anyway then with this cold weather its pretty bad in the mornings to get it to start when the batter can barely crank it over. but there was and still is one more issue to my battery going dead and thats the radio. I never would have thought that the radio could pull so much power, but its been running my battery all the way dead over night. So for now im just pulling the fuse when i park the truck and putting it back in once its running. So does anyone know why the radio would do that and could i just replace it with a better one and be fine. And how many cold cranking amps am i looking at needing for a new battery.