Hey Folks,
New to the site and the forum, thank you for having me!
I have a real problem here for anyone who could possibly help me out? The drive train on my Dually is completely rebuilt and new as she sits today, maybe 500 miles on the entire hookup. Anyway, I have had a power drain that I absolutely cannot find anywhere!!! I have brand new elec. components thru out, even changed them 3 times now, the battery is new and accepts a charge even from the alternator. But, in warm weather the battery dies in about 3 days. Now with the heater in use, it's done in about an hour! I have checked and re-checked every component, connection, ground. The wiring is in excellent condition thru the entire truck, it has bu 95,000 miles originally and a brother-in-law blew my original motor. There have been no modifications to the truck save I swapped out the AT for a 4 spd stick. I just cannot figure out why, or find, where I am losing so much power that the alternator cannot keep up to keep the battery alive???
Think it might be in the dash, as I have recently lost my instrumentation lighting, and no, no burnt fuses or anything obvious like that. This is a serious problem that I am desperate to repair and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You
Twister

 

I would suggest that since you’re not able to use the truck every day since the batt. keeps going dead, then you could start by pulling all fuses in the panel box and see if the problem stops, if so then start one by one till you find which one is draining your system then start looking into that area a little bit closer. I would bet you have more than likely have a bad light bulb on the dash somewhere and it is draining back through the ground by shorting out. Hope this may help you out.

 

Hey Countryboy...thanks for that...I'll start there for sure, sounds like a good plan to me and I'm fresh out of ideas to try. With the way the panel is designed, the copper taping between circuits, replacing the bad bulb when I locate it, should cure the issue right? I'm not looking at replacing the instrument cluster panel I hope...they're impossible to find in one piece here.

 

sounds like your alternator may not be putting out much amperage...did you load test the alternator, check battery voltage while the truck is running? sounds like if the battery is charged enough where you can start the truck but in the colder weather where you have to run the heater which draws a lot of current the alt. is not keeping up.

 

Actually this is the third alternator that I've tried, but yes, that was the first thought I had. We have a great little custom alternator building shop here in town, wasn't sure if I could mention their name? They load tested everything for me and did find that my regulator, the third I tried as well, was garbage and tested the brand new before I installed it. The alt is putting out the 72 amps it should and the battery charges like a dream. As soon as I draw from the headlights, and now the heater especially, the battery drains flat in a couple hours. I turn the heater off, the battery charges, so long as the lights aren't on. The battery recharges completely just off the alternator in about half an hour...so there obviously is a constant drain somewhere when the truck is running. Turned off, the battery stays up for months without loss of power. It's only when the truck is running that I have this drain. With nothing on, normal daylight driving, the truck lasts about 3 days before the battery dies to where I need a boost or recharge the battery.

Sorry for the novel...but that's the briefest way I can explain what's going on.

 

were these parts bench tested or tested on the truck? if bench tested and checked out ok i would most likely suspect a wiring issue...if the headlights were drawing too much current they would trip out as these older vehicles had self re setting breakers in the headlamp switches, with the heater would be a fuse that would go. btw welcome to fte !!

 

I actually tested both ways...realizing my error, I took them to a very good shop we have here and they bench tested everything for me and the one component I did have to change out was the regulator. We tested the new one at the shop even before I bought it,lol. By the way...anyone tells you that these chain auto stores sell quality parts...I would be very suspicious...the junk I got came from China and it's just that, shiny junk...$5.00 more got me a quality regulator! Lesson learned there I guess.

I'm certain now this problem is under the dash in the wiring...everyone has been extremely helpful...thank you all!!!

And thank you for the kind welcome.

 

Check the radio. I was having that problem on my first truck (A Dodge before I knew better ) and it stopped when I pulled the radio out of the dash. I filled the hole with a box I could fix a pistol in.

 

I seriously hadn't thought a stereo could drain so much! But I yanked it today and can run the headlites and heater, no low, for about 6 hours before the battery drains to dead. Blew me away...never heard of that before. But I think there's still under dash wiring issues...the problem is not cured yet. At least I'm zeroing in on the issue tho...thanks to great help I've gotten here!!!
Best thing I ever did was turn to guys who know...thank you and all the other people who've kindly helped me out thus far.