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I recently dropped a 94 351W into my 1984 bullnose..
my mechanic wired directly to my starter relay..Ever since then I have noticed my battery drains when I don't disconnect the terminal..
Question;. Are alternators constantly hot, or hooked up to a source that's only hot when the key is turned ? And if my starter relay is hot on the positive side and the starter side does that mean it's ready to go out..
I'm just trying to figure out how to hook up my alternator without my battery draining..So any help would be appreciated..
Thank you friends..
Can you take your truck back to your mechanic? If your battery drains then he wired something incorrectly. Your distributor needs 12V IGNition and there should always be continuity between the alternator and the + terminal of your battery.
Yes the ALT is hot all the time and could be a cause for the battery draining.
Easy enough to test. Think you have 2 wires and a heavy cable / wire to the ALT.
Remove the heavy cable / wire from the ALT and tape up the end as it will be live and see if you still have a drain.
If you don't want to wait over night or more for the battery to go dead you can use a test light, not the LED type.
Pop off 1 of the battery connections and put the light between the battery and the terminal. If it lights up you have a drain.
If dim just a little drain, bright a big drain! Don't forget to close the doors as the light will show up as a drain.
As for the solenoid / relay being hot is this after trying to start the motor or if sitting over night and you feel it and it is hot?
It may, the word "may" get warm when trying to start the motor.
It should not be hot if sitting over night and something is wired wrong and needs to be fixed ASAP.
Maybe post up a picture of it so we can see what is going on.
Dave ----
What ALT do you currently have, did you reuse the 1G?
The test light "test" can also be done after taking off the large output wire from the ALT.
Clip the ground lead of the test light on the ALT output post that you just removed the wire from. Touch the other end of the test light to the wire you just removed. If it lights up you have a drain. In theory, the diodes should block the reverse flow.
.
Jim, I figured he would disconnect the battery before removing the wire off the ALT so he would not short out the wrench and pop the fuse link.
Once the battery was disconnected use the test light to see if it lights up before removing the wire from the ALT this way you know if you have a drain before doing anything else.
Now being its safe to remove the ALT wire do so and test again for the drain.
Dave ----
As Jim states ,one bad diode can cause a slow drain ,and your electrical system can still function as normal . I had this pesky problem before .start there!! TR
