Cat in Canada

Battery dies after car sits over night. Thought it could be one of two things. had to glue my seliniod back together some time ago, started getting white electrical crap on it so I changed it. also thought it could be stereo amp, disconneceted it. still dying. cleaned all battery connecters and all the like. battery light comes on while driving off while parked. tried different batteries. Alt might be failing but I don't care about that, can be rebuilt. need to find out what's draining my battery while parked. Where do I start? Is this a commen defect in a 91 crown vic 5.0l? thanx for any help in advance

Bert

It's not a common problem. Check the amp draw at the battery and disconnect fuses to see when it goes down. It should be no more than about 50 milliamps. Could be slightly higher but in that area. here's how. http://www.bbbind.com/Bulletins_Atta...ery%20draw.pdf

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Bert

chipset

Many things can pull down a battery. Everything from a light staying on in the glove box
or trunk to a positive diode shorted in the alt. You have to put a volt meter ( analog )
in series with the battery. Pull fuses untill you see 0 volts and look in that curcuit. From what i read in your post i'd be looking at the alternator. Do your seat belt buzzers work ? Finding a battery drain can be very involved and take many hours. Without seeing
the car all i can do is give you some place to look. you wouldn't happen to have a trailer
connection would you ?

Cat in Canada

Thanx guys, think I found it. Went to Lordco( that's B.C,s bigger parts store ) and talked to the dude there and apparently the alteraters of that period fry the larger connection going into it. looked fine but some hooky looking tape job was running down the harness so I undid it and found another plug in about 6" down from the the first 2 runnig to the alt. as I undid the plug it fell apart in my hands. At least the next mornig when I put what was left of the harness back together the old girl fired right up. Score. on another note I tried setting my $6 multimeter to the 10 A setting to read draw it said nothing. Iwas under the impression that setting was to read power not draw. Maybe the fuse is blown in the tool or maybe I just own cheap crap. I am interested in learnig electronics so I might man up and by a nice "Fluke" brand but if anybody has any suggestions on what I was doing wrong I'd like to hear. Again thanx guys appreciat your willing to share knowledge.

Bert

Glad you got it fixed. Get a good book on auto electronics and practice. Check your library to see what they have availlable.

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Bert