ShaneTrain

Hey guys,

So I have been having all these problems with my battery draining and I'm starting to run out of ideas how to fix it...

I took it out tonight and the battery depleted to 8V while driving, but never died. I checked the alternator while running and it was pushing 21.5V, which tells me it's working overtime to keep the battery from kicking the bucket. So the alternator is good.

Here's what I've done/figured out... I've went through 3 batteries and 2 alternators trying to pinpoint the problem. And for the most part, I figured it out, until now. I have a 94amp alternator (new), battery has 850 CA and 690 CCA (new, but when it drained from heat soak with the 4 gauge wire prior to, I put it on a trickle charge for 3 days, then it was fine as far as I could tell), and I'm running 1 gauge wires because I have headers to prevent heat soak (because I ran in to that problem on my last battery running 4 gauge, fixed the problem).

Anyone run in to the same problem? Or have suggestion on what it could be? Should I be running a bigger battery on a 350? Maybe a smaller alternator? (Car does not have A/C btw). Maybe one of the cells in the battery is toast from the heat soak? I'm out of ideas

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Seems fairly straightforward:

Sounds like the alt output isn't hooked up to the batt.

Should be a short relatively large wire off of the pos batt terminal that goes straight to the alt. If there's not one, run about a #10 wire from the post of the alt, to the big post on the starter where the batt cable and all the fusible links go. Put a fusible link in it, at the alt end; use a #14 one, which will be color-coded "rust".

ShaneTrain

Does this set up look right? Where would I add in the fusible link? The wire runs to the starter, but not one to the battery

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

No that is not right. That's precisely the problem. There's no big fat red wire going straight from the alt post to the batt. From the factory, that was part of the red batt cable. Looks like the replacement cable you have in there now, didn't come with it.

Run a #10 wire from the big post on the starter with the batt cable (for all practical purposes that's the same electrical point as the batt terminal) to the big post on the alt that only has that little red sensing wire on it. Put the fusible link up at the alt end. Disconnect the batt terminals themselves while doing all this, of course. Solder the fusible link to the #10 wire if at all possible rather than relying on a butt splice.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Incidentally, when you run the wire, enclose it in the factory split-loom. Don't do a hack job and just leave a bunch of crap hanging all out in space everywhere just waiting to be a land mine that will blow up at the first available opportunity in the future. You're working on the highest power wiring in the car; the part most easily able to burn the whole car to the ground when it effs up; don't tempt fate.

ShaneTrain

I will give that a go. Thanks for your help!

AlkyIROC

A simple google search for 10si wiring finds lots of info. I picked this one to explain it. As mentioned above, use some 10 gauge wire from the battery/starter post to the alternator. 8 gauge will even work but is a little large.

ShaneTrain

Just finished running that 10 gauge wire with the 14 fusible link... worked like a charm! Thanks a lot guys!!