PLEASE HELP! Did big 3 and now battery is dead!

[afrakes]

Just went out to check the truck. Truck has been off 3 hours now and voltage is still holding at 12.3. Really unsure of what is causing this draw. And y it hasn't dropped in the past 3 hours, damn thing went from 14.4 with truck on to 7.3 volts with truck off in under an hour and a half yesterday.

[afrakes]

I guess either way, how can I trace whatever is drawing off my battery using my dmm? Turn the truck off and start plugging into wires until I find voltage where I shouldn't? Even then I don't know everything that should be/shouldn't be hot with truck off.

[Bayuk89]

Check ur crimps/solder on ur big three wires.

Like clean sierra said u might have a dead cell

That battery is toast if it got down to 7v pretty much any battery that gets below 9volts is done unless its a deep cycle but even then they can only be discharged so much before it wont hold a charge anymore. I think u said its 3 years past warrenty i wouldnt use it anymore because its been drained too far down on voltage too many times and if the plates inside are damaged ur ALT is basiclly running everything and it could shorten the life of ur ALT

If it was my rig and my money i would spend the $$ on a new battery even if its a lead cell factory replacement i wouldnt trust ur current battery.

double check ALL ur wiring because it sounds like something u installed might be wired wrong.

[CleanSierra]

Also, I know it's preference and doesn't affect this situation but you didn't NEED to fuse your positive wire from your alt to the batt in your Big3. GM didn't, you don't need to either.

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

Take your battery to AutoZone or someplace and have it tested. Have them charge it first.

I had a problem in my 93 Civic one time. The battery was dead. Checked it with a meter. Dead flat. By the time I got it to AutoZone the voltage had come up to about 6 volts.

It turned out that the thing on the brake pedal that turns the brake light switch off broke and the brake lights stayed on. Charged the battery overnight and it lasted another year and a half. When you don't have the money, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

[MotorCityFats13]

if the battery has top access to the electrolyte level and cells grab a battery hydrometer, if you dont have one then walmart sells one for $1.50 and I would bet 2 cells are between 25-0%..... I like to do this to all my dead batterys just before I trade them in.... if its totally sealed then its dead either way but dead batterys can be fun to play with... lol ..... but with 3 year replacement life is good if it kills another

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

One way to test for current drain with a test light: turn everything off and close doors etc.

1) remove positive cable from battery.

2) pull all fuses under hood and inside fuse box.

3) insert test light in series between battery post and positive cable.

4) light should not light

5) insert fuses one at a time to find circuit with drain. (computer might show a little)

[Ron36]

Tools u need, 2 vise grips and dmm. disconnect negative battery cable put dmm on amps, 10amp setting is fine, with vise grip clamp one lead to battery cable ground side and other lead to battery post ground side ,check your amp reading should be under 50 milliamps witch is almost nothing if you are reading like 2.5 or any number then .005 start unplugging fuses till you see the reading on the dmm change then you will know where start looking for your battery draw . That's the way I always check at work and it's a good starting point hope it helps

[afrakes]

Thanks for all the responses guys. Spent about an hour talking to some old retired mechanics down at Napa, and they pushed me in the right direction for how to go about this. Haven't had any voltage issues since I jumped it this morning, but it hasn't sat for more than 3 hours without being turned on.

Got home and disconnected the ground, set up my dmm between the negative battery post and negative wire to see how many amps my battery was discharging. The highest it ever got was .3 amps, which is normal from what I understand. I then cleaned up all my wiring with zip ties, retightened everything, made sure any loose copper strands were taken care of. After all that I retested the amperage upon discharge and got a reading of 0.0. Now I'm not sure if this is normal? This entire time the battery was disconnected and resting at 12.62. Once I reconnected the battery my voltage read 12.42. Could be my meter though.

I'm going to closely monitor my voltage as the night goes on and see what happens. I don't have a battery charger at home but there's one I can use at work tomorrow. I'm going to ride this wave for a minute and see what my battery does with a charge.

[Ron36]

You should really do a slow trickle charge for about 10 to 12 hrs to fully get that batteries life back . Hope it all works out . A rule I've always been told by old techs is you can fully drain and recharge a battery 3 times before its done.