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Old May 16, 2008 | 07:07 PM
  #1  
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voltage problem

Got a few questions here.

I know this is kinda general but..Has anyone had a drain on there battery when the truck sits for a long time? Mine has a slow drainand was wondering if someone experienced this so I can check it on mine.

Also haveing a starting issue. I go to crank and the whole truck dies. But its not a fast die it slowly dies down. You can look at the underhood light and see the thing slowly turning off takes like a minute for it to die all the way out. Seems the battery cables on the driver side I can wiggle them and move the placement on them on the terminal and I get full contact again. Anyone else experience this?

Thanks for the help guys!!
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 07:19 PM
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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo
You should not be able to move the terminals by hand. You answered your own question. Take all 4 of them off, clean them properly and then put them back on very snuggly, that means tight.
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 07:37 PM
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ok I didn't calrify. Sorry about that.

I can't move them by hand. If I take the terminal off and move it everything powers back up. I have taken the terminals off cleaned and actually recut everything with a terminal shaver tool. Sorry I don't know the exact name of the tool.
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 09:20 PM
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I need a little more info to help you out. 1: How old are your batteries? 2: How long did the truck sit?
A battery will slowly lo on each battery a charge over time. This is normal. If the truck starts then slowly dies i would lean towards bad batteries. You need to have 2 good ones to run the truck. Try charging them and see how the truck runs. I would put a load test on each battery. (Disconnect from each other.) Check all cables andground connections.
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 10:58 PM
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charged the batteries up and load tested at Auto Zone. Everything checked out alright replaced batteries right before last winter. Truck sat for a 2 weeks.
The problem I am having is the truck never gets to the crank point soon as the WTS light goes out and I turn the key it just dies. I pop the hood and the hood light is half lit and slowly dies out over a minutes time. Batteries still at full charge.

Thankyou for your help!!
Rich
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 11:15 PM
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Did auto zone check the batteries together or did they disconnect them and check them seperately? If they did seperate then check your grounds.
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 11:25 PM
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Always use 2 identical batteries, same brand, type , capacity, age..... Otherwise one will drain the other.

As far as i know, there are capacitors in the electrical system that hold charge while the batteries are disconnected.
This is why the terminal will spark when connected, even though nothing is on. (i'm thinking also why your light dims slowly...)

Chances are, you gotta crawl around, take the battery connection terminals off and clean usind sand paper or steel wool and tighten back up.
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 11:40 PM
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thanks for the responses guys!!

Yeah they checked the batteries seperate. I took them up there out of the truck.

Do you all know where I would start to check on what is draining the batteries while its sitting for a while?
 
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Old May 16, 2008 | 11:53 PM
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Electrical Gremlins are the worst to find. Start by checking grounds. Look for a chaffed wire somewhere. A wire that is rubbing ground with out good enough contact to short will act as a resistor and draw current from the battery.
 
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Old May 17, 2008 | 12:01 AM
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If you supect a drain you need a meter to measure the drain in amps DC. Disconect one battery both positive and negative. On the other battery, disconect one terminal. With the meter set to measure DC AMPS make the conection with the meter leads to the disconected battery terminal. This will show you the amount of amps draining your battery. Now start pulling fuses until the meter shows 0 amps. When you find the fuse draining the battery you have narrowed down to the point of where you need to look for the drain.
 
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Old May 17, 2008 | 09:20 AM
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Many meters can only handle 10 amps of draw.

Sometimes draw only shows up with a certain amperage available. By this i mean that a device may not drain any power until it gets 10 volts, or mabye it needs more amps than the meter will conduct.

Try 12v light bulbs.

Digital meters are hard to read when playing around with loose wires, the display constantly changes.

Also, If you leave everything connected, and put a battery charger on trickle, if it has a guage on it you should be able to cheat and use that to determin whats drawing juice by pulling the fuses or jiggling the wires.
 
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Old May 17, 2008 | 01:05 PM
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From: maui,hawaii
i would check the batterys with a hydrometer a little old school but it will tell you if you have a weak or dead cell thats drawing from the other cells
 
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