After about two years out I am back into a bus! This time it is a 72 westy but I think it may be an imported model(as in after being sold out of states.. )
Here are some interesing items-- pls comment
1. It has an additional wiring loom coming off the battery that appears to be for the heater blower setup and since it is a 10/71 production I though that would be about a year too early to have that.. is it possible that it could (doesnt look like p/o could have replaced it and it seems I am the third owner)
2. Now to the important thing.. every morning I go out to the bus and the battery is dead. I finally decided to fix it but after my normal troubleshooting of pulling all the fuses and having at it with the old ground cable/spark trick nothing was listed. I also put an ameter across all of the empty fuse posts and none of them drew any current.. There is no jerry rigging coming off the battery that I can see so I am now stumped. Outside of removing the battery cable every night are there any suggestions?? One intersting thing to note is that there is a very small spark at the ground cable after about a 5 minute period of not having the ground strap connected. Is it possible that something inside the bus has a capacitor in it that continuously draws more and more current (the spark after a 5 minute wait is smaller than from a clock)
Thanks for taking the time to help me out..!!
Tom
Buy or borrow a hydrometer. Check each cell in the battery for the specific gravity of the electrolyte. I would bet that you will find one very low. This is called a "dead cell". It is caused by either cracks in the plates, or calcification of the plates. It is common and can happen even on a new battery. What the dead cell does, is draw power from teh other cells slowly because of an external short, and convert part of the electrolyte to calcium further binding up the plates so they cannot produce power through electrolytic action. It only gets worse and cannott be fixed. Get a new battery if a cell reads low specific gravity. Ray
Thanks.. I will surely check that this morning... The thing that I was thinking after brainstorming about where capacitors could be is- one is the condensor (coming out soon for pertronix) and one in the coil (not hot to the touch ever so I think that it is not drawing all the time but maybe)... the thing I am thinking is that the starter may be introducing a ground/short into the system and that would be a reason that pulling all the fuses out would still leave a draw on the battery. I think that putting the ammeter in line with the pos side vice neg side would tell me something... ?? .. Can you guys think of anything else in the vehicle that doesnt haev a fused circuit?
Thom, if you pull the ground strap from the battery overnight and find the battery discharged the next morning then certainly the battery is internally shorted and needs to be replaced. If however it does have the reserve to crank the car then back to checking for a draw. Chances are you need a battery. Good luck. Bob
Thanks alot for the tips. I traced it out this weekend and found that I was Just not getting enough juice from teh switch. I put one of the bosch low voltage relays in and it hasnt hiccuped yet!! I would reccomend these things as my starter now engages much more crisply and fires the motor up in half the time!
A free and easy test I do, Is I turn the head lights on. most Batteries can last for a while and still start a vehicle, I leave them on for 10-15 minutes and then come back and measure the battery voltage, when I have a shorted cell the battery wont recover, and go up to 25+ volts and wont start the car unless I put a charger on it.
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