In my 1985 f150 i replaced the battery,alt,voltage reg, and cleaned all connections. the next day my new battery was dead !! i pulled the NEG wire and checked it with a amp meter.it read 13 AMP.... somthing is draining my battery...i tried the pulling all the FUSES one at a time and nothing ....Could this be somthing to do with the starter ? i even pulled the headlight connector....still nuttin..Whne i disconnect the hot wire to the ALT, the drainage goes away..I took back the alt, they tested it and said it wasnt putting out anything.i got a new one AND IT DID THE SAME THING.....HELP PLEASE !!!!!!

 

Starter Motor Relay....mebie, but it would have to be going to ground all the time to drain the battery, hummm Do you have a Anp Gage on it? What does it read with the motor running and what does it read with it off? HAve you checked the connections to the ALT to make sure none of the wires are touching a ground...mebie the connector is against the alt housing? OR perhaps you have a bad ground to the ALT? That would keep it from charging enough tp keep the battery up. Usually a alt would produce slighty more than 13.5 DC volts from a 60 amp ALT. Battery connections needs to be clean and sulfur free to get a good connection. wiring to the Voltage regulalor needs to be clean and tight and NO wires touching grounded surfaces. All fuse links should be good, with no fuse links puffed up fromthe inside out. The way to check that is to get a safety pin, insert each one near each end and with the batter disconnected, check to see it you have cont. If no connection, it means no current is flowing through that fuse link. Bottom line......could you have gotten the same alt back that they sold you the first time? Just some idea's to try.

 

thanks for the input... All the connections are clean and in the right spots. i checked all the fuseable links like you said and i have a good connection.Its not the same one, cuz he handed me another one while i still had the bad one..BUT maybe the whole batch of ATL 's are bad since some kid is getting 5 bucks a week in MEXICO is putting them together...
i"m taking the day off to watch football, tring again tomarrow.

 

I had a problem like this once on a tempo it turned out that the regulater was sticking causing the drain. Just a thought

Dave

 

well, after a few days i narrowed it down to the wiring ....duh.
the F WIRE from the voltage reg to the alt i was thinking was bad. Then i got a call from a friend saying to take it to a auto eletronic shop down the road..Well, i caved in and took it there. I explain evrything it did to the guy, he called me back a few hrs later....... it was the wiring between the voltage reg , alt and battery.!!!!!!! no kidding i said....some how it was OVER chargeing arround 17 volts....almost burned up my new batt..
i'm picking it up today,All new wiring and it only cost me 150.00
just in time to snowplow.....
THANKS EVERYONE FOR THEIR HELP, THIS PLACE IS GREAT !!!!