Topic: BIG electrical issue

[Quetzalcoatl]

What purpose do you think a battery serves? What do you mean by your comment " So driving a car every weekend or even every 15 days will drain out the battery?" Does driving a car in your country paying 8,4$ per gallon have a different effect on a battery than driving a car in the US at 3,85$ per gallon?
Did you know that you can buy brand spanking new batteries that are defective? Yep...right off the shelf! I understand that your alternator is showing 13-15 volts (was that reading from the gauge inside the car or from a voltmeter checked at the alternator)and is possibly not bad but you should have it checked. The reason I say that is because once you get your engine cranked and running (despite how much fuel costs, despite owning a Fiat, despite bad alternator bearings, despite all else) unless you cut off air, fuel or fire that engine will sit there and run. Your car doesn't need a battery to keep the engine running. As long as the alternator is charging you can throw the battery away once the engine is cranked.

I mean that I bought this car knowing that i cannot drive it every day (because of the gas price...), so I bought also a 900A battery that will aid starter to crank this big engine easily, and also because this kind of batteries are built to support long periods without charge. A normal lead battery can last very few time if used only every 15 days or every month. I KNOW that this is NOT relevant for the engine, and i KNOW the battery works fine, because i've used it in my Bravo for some time (waiting another battery to replace its one).
Today I wire a charger to the battery while I'm searching for the problem, and it happens also with the charger wired to the battery. It seems that every electrical device i turned on will drain lots of power, then "something" BLOCK the entire system for a while. I start to disconnect gauges and devices on the dashboard, and the issue repeats itself like i've done nothing. I also disconnect the alternator: same story...
Now if I crank the engine, it starts regularly. If i turn on the radio, it works. If i turn on the signals, the "hazard", lights, horn... voltmeter drop to zero and the "buzz" stop to make noise. With the engine on and the alternator regularly wired, doing the same things will drop the voltmeter slowly. If I maintain the engine revs up, the voltmeter don't drop. So the alternator and the battery seems to be OK...
Tomorrow i will check cables in the engine bay.
PS: i've found the purpose and the locations of the two unplugged wires on the front. One has falled from the low beam connector, other one is a ground. Now all the front lights works... so it remains only the "master" problem to resolve.

[kc79ta]

It sounds to me like the red wire at the starter is loose or half broke. Not the BIG red cable from the battery. It's the smaller 12ga. wire that runs to the firewall. Check the connection at the starter and follow it to the firewall for damage. It runs into the bulkhead below the Master Cylinder. This is what BrianC had said and I think he is right on the money. Check them all, but I would look at this one first.

Also, take a quick look at the grounding staps. There should be one that runs from the firewall to the engine block on the passanger side top, and one below that runs to the tranny bellhousing.

[Quetzalcoatl]

It sounds to me like the red wire at the starter is loose or half broke. Not the BIG red cable from the battery. It's the smaller 12ga. wire that runs to the firewall. Check the connection at the starter and follow it to the firewall for damage. It runs into the bulkhead below the Master Cylinder. This is what BrianC had said and I think he is right on the money. Check them all, but I would look at this one first.

Also, take a quick look at the grounding staps. There should be one that runs from the firewall to the engine block on the passanger side top, and one below that runs to the tranny bellhousing.

THX, sure i'll do these checks next weekend. Today i've installed new wiper blades, new window crank handles, new horn relay (even if I checked the old one and it seems OK), and i've unmounted all the gauges and devices in the instrument panel, i've sanded the contacts and then... it happened again: even the "hazard" use so much power to cut off the entire system. I changed the courtesy light switch behind the driver's door, and i found the old one is rusted and full of dirt. I noticed that the switch doesn't work till it touch the car body, so it take the ground from it and not from a wire... but it has a white and a black wire. In the wire diagram, it seems that one wire goes to the light switch and the other one to the key buzzer. Maybe the rust and the dirt will prevent a good contact, creating an abnormal power absorbption, maybe is the buzzer or a device near it that drains power due to the bad connection... i only know that I've wired and attached the new switch and from that moment the issue has never repeated. Now i've mounted again the instrument panel devices (also sanded all the contacts i can reach and replaced two instrument lights) and all seems to work as MOM GM dome it in the 70's
Obviously i'll continue to check the wires searching for bad contacts, rubber cracks etc.

PS: please forgive me to not have done it yet... here's my baby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJX63iwrXew&feature=player_embedded

[oldskoolubr]

Nice Car Man!  Are You an AZ Cardinal Fan by Any Chance?!(Seeing Red)

[Quetzalcoatl]

Nice Car Man!  Are You an AZ Cardinal Fan by Any Chance?!(Seeing Red)

No, sorry...
I like only sports involving an engine and some wheels. Seeing people playing with balls usually breaks mines
Seriously, american football is a GAME and people treat it like a GAME. In Europe (and Italy in particular) people use to consider soccer like a wargame, players like Rambo (or a traitor, depending if he makes goal or not) and the monday match debriefing is like the process of Nuremberg, treating each loser team like a nazi criminal. Ah, change sex or religion is considered better than change the Team you follow. It's not for me

[joe d]

have you resolved the issue with your car?

[ta6point6]

I think you need to check the altenator and I bet the internal regulator is going bad. You said you had a bad bearing in the altenator and it probably has black dust everywhere from bearing turning to dust. It sounds like the altenator to me but also check to see how corroded the negative and positive cables are going to the battery.

[joe d]

sounds almost certain you have a pinched wire or a grounding wire on the alternator, trace all your wires from te battery, alternator and see if something is touching or is grounded out, would explain why after it heats up

yup

[Quetzalcoatl]

have you resolved the issue with your car?

No, actually my car can't drive freely on public roads because it's not registered yet, and so it has not plates. Here in Italy bureaucracy is very annoying, next June there are TWO YEARS i have the car and i still waiting the "test" day in MCTC, the vehicles bureau. So I installed a battery switch to prevent the charge goes down, waiting the day i will drive the car to a mechanic. To install the battery switch, i've also replaced the ground wire with a new one, the battery side with a normal clamp, replacing the OEM wire that has a bolt.
I noticed all the problems start to happen when the battery charge is low, when i load the battery with the charger everything seems to function properly. So I suppose the alternator don't work fine. I'll check it as soon as i can.
I absolutely HATE italian bureaucracy, i produced tons of paper and now everything is blocked because an idiot in MCTC is NEVER in the office, and he is the ONLY person that can make an appointment to the test day. So i cannot drive my T/A because he has little desire to work (even he's afraid to make mistakes, years ago workers in MCTC take bribes to do everything people wants, and now they are in jail... so now the motto is "no work done, no mistakes made" )