Wouldn't a fairly big short drain the battery pretty fast. Of course the
short would have to be pre fuse and thick enough not to melt away. ([cough],
another reason to have an amp meter)) It seems even with the
alternator\generator not charging the battery, an average battery would
still last longer than 10 minutes even with lights, ignition, radio among
other aux. equipment. If you got the battery at AutoZone, Pep Boys (insert
other crap auto parts places) they will check it out for you to see if its
chemically dead. Also the good old kind of battery chargers actually show
how many amps its charging at, and not just "LOW". My dad's hand me down
charger from Sears-Roebuck vintage 1950s (its got the 6 or 12 volt switch
too) has a nice amp gauge on it, to see how far down the battery really is.
Did you store it on concrete? (let's not start that tread again)
Good luck
Toby
69 AH Sprite (awaiting SU carb rebuild.)
71 FJ40
> In a message dated 4/8/2000 6:52:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> spritenut@Exit109.com writes:
>
> << I charged the
> battery, took a 10 minute drive, shut it off and it was just about stone
> dead. >>
>
> Frank--that seems too quick for a short to drain a battery to stone dead.
I
> mean you can leave your lights on for much longer than that with a good
> battery and it will still have enough charge to start the car. That
sounds
> like the battery is being drawn upon for charge from the engine and not
being
> replenished, which makes me suspect a problem with the alternator or with
the
> connection between the alternator and the battery. You said you swapped
the
> Jap alternator with another one. Another what? A new one? Another Jap
one?
> Really, I think the Jap alternators are pretty good--it is the repro
parts
> that are el cheapos. It just sounds like for some reason your battery is
not
> benefitting from the charging of the alternator.
>
> --David C.
>
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