1987 TR 4 new Optima Redtop batteries in as many months. I drive the car, I park it and within 12 hours the battery is dead. How and where do I start to trace what is draining it/them? I can rebuild a complete car....BUT give me a 12 volt electrical system and I am an idiot. Calling Steve, Hey there, Rifledriver, Carguy, "Can ya hear me callin"?........................ NOTE: Altenator light "barely" glows, ever so slightly, at all times that the ignition is on. Lights tend to "strobe" slightly when on and engine is running. Time for an alternator rebuild? Kerry
Dear Ferraristi, ....glowing alt/battery light? burned diode in Alternator. When you have a bad battery....it kills the alt. When you have a bad alt....it kills the battery. You need to have your alt rebuilt. If you check the cross reference thread, I have a place is Florida that I send mine to. ( Same guys the F pimp (dealer ) uses ) When you get your rebuilt alt put back in, change the battery again. Don't use the existing battery....the bad alt may have damaged it and it will now damage the rebuilt unit. If you do a search on TR alt, I did a full re/ re proceedure for it. Given your skills Kerry, you can do this in a jiffy. ....oh, and how come my name wasn't in the "callin" ? Am I only good for my white linen suit and knowing every episode of Miami Vice ! Shamile Freeze...Miami Vice !
You have a current draw somewhere. I would try to get an amp draw clamp to see how much current the car is drawing with the key off. A TR should show less then .02 amps (due to the lack of computers that need to stay alive, compared to todays cars). If you have a draw, pull one fuse at a time to determine which circuit is pulling the juice. Once you figure out which circuit then you can go further to determine the what and why. In the interim you can use your battery switch to save the battery in between starts.
OOPPs I read the rest of your post, Yes I would suspect the altenator, You can confirm the draw also with the amp probe.
