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1989 Ford F150 battery drains while not running
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jackmoddle
New User
Oct 18, 2008, 4:03 PM
Post #1 of 2
(1880 views)
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1989 Ford F150 battery drains while not running
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Hey,
I have an old 1989 Ford F-150 (4.9 L I6 I believe)that has had several problems in the past, all of which seem to be cause by wiring and/ or battery issues. It has had issues where it stalls while driving, mostly in winter. One day while I was driving it the lights began to dim and the battery warning light came on before the truck died completely. It had to be jumpstarted and had run down the battery to absolute 0 (no hazards, no nothing). I suspected the alternator. I put a new battery in it so that I could test the alternator, and after charging it and successfully starting it a couple times (during running the battery charge meter read low, at about 9-10) I left it for the night. Temperatures might have gotten down to -5 Celsius or so. When I came back to it two days later it was fully discharged. As far as I know a bad alternator shouldn't affect the charge while it's not running. I don't know much about vehicles, but somebody had mentioned that it might be a fried capacitor. How might I check for that, and does anyone else have suggestions as to what the source of the problem might be?
Thanks,
Jack
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Oct 18, 2008, 5:15 PM
Post #2 of 2
(1875 views)
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Re: 1989 Ford F150 battery drains while not running
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Charge the battery with a separate charger before more testing. No kidding - even Wally world has decent "tricke" chargers for under $20 bucks that everyone should own. Those take all night or day but are safe and auto shut down.
Then run it and see what voltage reads. When running it should be above 13v clearly all the time while running. If it can't do at least that then make sure belt it tight enough and if so check the alternator/voltage regulator. If it has a slow drain and it might, it still shouldn't prevent it from charging on it's own but does need to begin with a fully charged battery - some new off the shelf batteries aren't fully charged. Know that running regular automotive batteries down to zero is very harmful to them new or not too
T
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