Jump to content
Ultimate Subaru Message Board

Announcements


Power drain 83 Coupe One More Time Might have found it


Recommended Posts

One last question...is it normal to disconnect the battery and hear a sucking noise come from the carb?
Another question.....did this carb come with the engine you recently installed that happened about the same time as the battery drain?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 194
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Another question.....did this carb come with the engine you recently installed that happened about the same time as the battery drain?

 

 

Ed ..thats my weber set up that was also on the old motor.

 

I just found it awefully strange that after sitting for an hour and a half...disconnnct the battery and then the carb starts sucking something

Edited by Bucky92
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ed ..thats my weber set up that was also on the old motor.

 

I just found it awefully strange that after sitting for an hour and a half...disconnnct the battery and then the carb starts sucking something

I would find it strange also.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just found it awefully strange that after sitting for an hour and a half...disconnnct the battery and then the carb starts sucking something

 

I could see it happen if the car was in gear and you leaned against it while working. But,,,, you'd have to lean against it pretty good.

 

Now,, letting the grey matter run rampant and going to extremes here.

 

I can picture carbon dust from the starter brushes causing a path to ground internally. Just enough to make starter want to turn, but not enough to make it actually crank the engine over.

 

Way out there,,, I know.

 

Easy check.

Disconnect battery negative cable from battery.

 

Disconnect the main battery cable from starter. Secure it so it can't touch anything on the loose end. Un-plug the small solenoid wire also.

 

Reconnect the battery negative cable to battery.

 

See if you still get a drain on the battery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last night Neo talked me into pulling all the fuses and reconnecting the battery...just to see if it is one of those circuits ..came home from work and Batt is dead...so it has to be something in the main harness right?

 

How many times can I let this poor battery get fully charged then fully discharged before its toast..they wont honor the warranty again on it.

 

BTW..I had left the batt disconnected since sunday and it didnt even drop a .1 in voltage... I went to work it was 12.3 ..came home it was 2.2.

 

The car does have one oddity ..we put a new ign switch in it..well the lock cylinder..and since then..when you shut the car off it stays running for a second before it shuts off. I took the meter to the connections.

 

I also ..while the batt was disconnected..I took the DMM and set it to the upside down horseshoe ( how stupid do I sound?) put it on the 2M spot and touched the cables..the reading I got was 0.003

Edited by Bucky92
Link to comment
Share on other sites

.003 is a pretty good reason for the drain you are seeing; it's almost a dead short. If you want to continue this (I know it's frustrating, but you're on the right track), take out each fuse one at a time and check the reading to see if the .003 changes. It should get to be a big number or indicate offscale when you find the circuit causing the drain. If all the fuses are removed and you still get the .003 reading, pull the fusible links one a time and take a resistance reading (upside down horseshoe; and no, you don't sound stupid) each time. Good luck.

 

As to the battery condition for draining it all the time and recharging. It shouldn't degrade the battery as long as it doesn't sit discharged for a long period of time. Charge it up and leave it charged. No point in connecting it again for the time being.

Last night Neo talked me into pulling all the fuses and reconnecting the battery...just to see if it is one of those circuits ..came home from work and Batt is dead...so it has to be something in the main harness right?

 

How many times can I let this poor battery get fully charged then fully discharged before its toast..they wont honor the warranty again on it.

 

BTW..I had left the batt disconnected since sunday and it didnt even drop a .1 in voltage... I went to work it was 12.3 ..came home it was 2.2.

 

The car does have one oddity ..we put a new ign switch in it..well the lock cylinder..and since then..when you shut the car off it stays running for a second before it shuts off. I took the meter to the connections.

 

I also ..while the batt was disconnected..I took the DMM and set it to the upside down horseshoe ( how stupid do I sound?) put it on the 2M spot and touched the cables..the reading I got was 0.003

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK did the fuseabe links ( cause all the other fuses were already out.) Pulled the green .. still had the 0.003 pulled the center red and got 1.00 put the green back in ..tested again and still had 1.00 pulled the 2nd red and had 1.00 ..put the center red back in..and was back to 0.003.

 

There is a thick yellow wire coming out of the center part of the fuse block ..

 

OK so I think I might be getting somewhere

Link to comment
Share on other sites

did LB used to have AC? and if so, was it deleted out?

 

Yes the AC was removed ..and I believe all parts associating with it.

 

Like I stated ..I didnt have this problem till this motor swap...and I removed the AC when I pulled the original motor to do the head gaskets. That motor had a good 7-10 hours of run time on it before it went belly up after the reinstall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got out my FSM ..and if I am reading it right..it has to do with my ign switch.. That was just changed during the motor swap. the unit on the steering column

And I stated that my ign is funny cause when you turn the car off it doesnt shut off till a minute later

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have service manual for '84; should be the same for your '83. Fusible links are green, red and red. If the service manual doesn't mis-lead me, that's Fusible link 1, 2, and 3. Fusible link 2 goes directly to the ignition switch and to the alternator. To isolate this further, put the center red back in and unplug the harness to the ignition switch (does the meter go back to 1.00?). If not, disconnect both of the wires to the alternator (does the meter go back to 1.00 now?).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WE HAVE A WIENER!!!

 

plug to the Alt is the culprit!!:banana::banana::banana:

 

When I went to remove the wire on the back ( with the ring connector...the wire fell right out of the crimp

Edited by Bucky92
Link to comment
Share on other sites

WE HAVE A WIENER!!!

 

plug to the Alt is the culprit!!:banana::banana::banana:

 

When I went to remove the wire on the back ( with the ring connector...the wire fell right out of the crimp

I think we're almost there, but don't jump to that conclusion just quite yet. Fix the bad wiring and check that the meter reads 1.00 with everything connected first.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I fixed the ring and seperated the 2 wires that go into the plug...I still get the .003 with the plug :-\ but will get 1.0 when it is unplugged
That's actually a good thing since it indicates the short is not in the wiring.

 

Next step: Take the meter and touch one probe to the case of the alternator and the other to each of the three connections and see what the meter tells you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How could that drain the battery.

 

A loose hot wire can move into a position so as to short out on the alt, or

it can short out onto the frame or block etc if it falls out of the connector.

 

I'm just wondering why the fusible link didn't toast itself with such a power

drain...

 

And as for the reading's you're getting, your wiring harness sounds at fault.

Have you unplugged the harness and tried testing the "ohm" (upside down

horseshoe) rating from prong to prong in the harness plug?

A wiring diagram would be incredibly helpful so as to save you time by

canceling out the prongs that you know are supposed to be connected. :)

 

And I'm glad you decided to keep working on it. :)

I knew it had to be the frustration talking.

 

Twitch

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm just wondering why the fusible link didn't toast itself with such a power

drain...

 

Twitch

A car battery has typically 80 Ampere-hours of capacity. The battery would discharge in about 10 hours; so the drain is 8 amps/hour. This won't even blow the fuse (if there were one in-line) much less the fusible link.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

with everything hooked up its back to .003

 

But I am going to have to call it quits for the day to get some sleep so I can work tonight.

 

But hey..some progress was made ..at least I think. And I appreciate everything ..really ..honestly I do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You did good today and lots of progress was made. I've got to go to work and you need your sleep. We'll pick it up again when there's time.

with everything hooked up its back to .003

 

But I am going to have to call it quits for the day to get some sleep so I can work tonight.

 

But hey..some progress was made ..at least I think. And I appreciate everything ..really ..honestly I do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Connie,

 

Here is some info for you and don't worry about understanding it right away if it doesn't come to you. I'm also very glad to see you are going to find this trouble and fix it, and not let it defeat you.

 

The horseshoe symbol is the Greek symbol Omega and way back when I called it a horseshoe also because I didn't know what else to call it. This symbol stands for resistance in the electrical world. You are using your meter to measure resistance and the units you measure resistance in is called ohms. The more ohms a device measures means it has more resistance and LESS current will flow through it. All things have some sort of resistance so there are insulators and conductors. A good conductor (like a copper wire) has very little resistance and conducts electricity very well. So we make wires out of copper and insulate them with plastic to keep the wire isolated from other things. The plastic has a very high resistance so basically no current flows though it and any current flow in the wire 'channel' stays inside the wire. That is all I will say right now to keep it simple.

 

One other thing I did notice in your previous post. You set your meter to read ohms and also selected the 2M range scale position. That letter M stands for Mega and that means 'millions', so your meter will measure resistances up to 2 million ohms in that range scale. When you use that range you are usually looking for something with a very high resistance. You on the other hand, are looking for a moderately low resistance that is drawing current from the battery. It would be better to set you meter to a lower range, something like the 2k scale. 'k' is the symbol for kilo which stands for 'thousands'. So the 2k scale will display up to 2 thousand ohms. The lower the scale you can use the more resolution you will see in the reading. You can even go lower if the resistance is lower. If you have a 200 ohm scale that should work for you. If the resistance is beyond the scale you have selected the meter display should show something like 'OL' for over limit and you select the next higher scale to see if that will work.

 

Hope this info helps you out. Class dismissed for now.

Edited by Cougar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...