Electrical Short

[drwhosc]

So beautiful spring day, going to take the car out for a drive today. Get in turn the key, I have great voltage, I turn the key to start, and the car dies. No electrical power, and my volts are reading less than 9. I disconnect the batteries, and good Volts on each battery. I know I have to trace the circuit to find my voltage drop, and I am suspecting a bad solenoid. I am also worried about missing something else like a bad ignition switch. I have had difficulty starting, a weak start in the past, and I replaced the started/solenoid a couple of time. the problem has persisted, but this is kind of the same thing, but it has never done this before.

Just wondering what folks think about as far as troubleshooting this issue. I just pulled the positive leads on the batteries to prevent a burning up da porsche.

thanks

[edmayo]

You really need to have the batteries load tested. Auto parts stores can do this.

[trdking]

You really need to have the batteries load tested. Auto parts stores can do this.

Exactly what I was thinking

[drwhosc]

yea will pull them tomorrow night and get them tested. Not fun, batteries are only lasting about 2-3 years in this car. I am running a dual battery set up and I have them sitting a tender. Positive on one battery, and ground on the other. Getting a full circuit. Just checked the voltage across the battery and I have 13 v so a bit high. I installed a volt meter, and I am only getting 9V on the 15 circuit. I took the ignition switch apart just now, and all looks good. did some light cleaning of the contacts. Tested the 3 positions, and getting good continuity.

Also will plan to remove the battery from the starter to see if that will help eliminate the short. Fun Fun Fun.

will let you know what the load test shows tomorrow. thanks for the help

[trdking]

Fyi 13 Volts is not high on a 12 volt battery. Long periods of time on a trickle can kill your battery

Cheers

[edmayo]

There is a difference between a 'maintainer' and a 'trickle' charger, which one do you have? You really need to start at the battery and volt check every connection until you find where it changes to 9 v. Usually it is a connection, not a component, often in cable ends at the battery that 'look' good,,,,but aren't, or at the fuse box. My Sonnenschein batteries last up to 8 years on a 'maintainer'.

[drwhosc]

So took my batteries in for a test. Lucky they are under warrantee. I put my volt meter across them and get 12 volts, the store, got 8.4 volts on both of them. I did try to charge them up last night, and still nada. Pretty sure it is going to turn out to be the batteries. An I am learning that there is a difference between a charge and a maintainer. Mine were on a charger. so. another purchase is in my future, but full replacement warrant

[RSTarga]

I use one of those computer controlled gizmos. It can give a full charge for all types of batteries or just function as a trickle charger. I connect just one battery's positive and negative, instead of the positive on one and the negative of the other, don't know if that makes a difference. That still charges both.

[37yrold911]

So took my batteries in for a test. Lucky they are under warrantee. I put my volt meter across them and get 12 volts, the store, got 8.4 volts on both of them. I did try to charge them up last night, and still nada. Pretty sure it is going to turn out to be the batteries. An I am learning that there is a difference between a charge and a maintainer. Mine were on a charger. so. another purchase is in my future, but full replacement warrant

this sounds like the battery had a "surface charge"

C-TEK is supposed to make a very good maintainer

[raspy2point2]

I also connect the maintainer to the positive and negative on just one battery. It will charge both. These new maintainers have a computer that automatically shuts off the charge when no longer needed. I also leave off the maintainer from time to time because I noticed the battery with the maintainer connections, gets low first on the water levels than the other battery. Chris