1971 plymouth fury wagon keep draining battery.

[cbendure]

New alternator, voltage regulator, new battery, New battery terminals. After charging battery is fully i can drive around about a few days to aweek and battery is dead again. Can jump start car and run fine so alt is working proper. Any ideas? Please and thank u.

 

[cbendure]

It's the 360 engine.

 

[Big_John]

Sounds like you have some sort of electrical draw that's killing your battery.

Here's a good video on the subject. He explains some different methods and there's two that just use a DMM. The first is shown in the first part of the video and the second is about halfway through the video where he talks about how to check it using voltage drop across the fuses and that's real easy to do. Yea, I know we have different style fuses, but it will still work.

 

[polara71]

I recently had an issue in Missouri. The battery would drain after a few days. The problem was the door switch wires which had been disconnected by the previous owner were touching the body and causing a short. I was puzzled for months until I had the time to hunt it down

I agree with John, sounds like a short/draw

 

[FURYGT]

By any chance are either the glove box lamp or the rear cargo area lamp staying on?

 

[cbendure]

Thank for the video I will watch n try n hunt it down. Glove I will check rear cargo goes off when door shuts. But I'll check that again. For now I bought a under the hood trickle charger so my battery doesn't sit dead as I know that can be bad for them.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Rear cargo lamp should have a switch - easy to leave on... also check that the brake lights aren't staying on (sticky pedal return).

As above - door switch, glove box door lamp.

 

[CBODY67]

Although the alternator is new, check the diodes to see that one has not failed. Also get a charging system check, for good measure. Ensure that all battery terminals/cables are CLEAN and dry and solidly-connected.

It has to be something related to "not turning off" something or a chafed wire that's laying on a bare metal surface. On a non-wagon, it can be the trunk light switch. The map light, if equipped, might be staying on, too.

The door jamb switches are simple spring-loaded contact switches. Some times, as with the similar trunk light switch, they can fail and leave the light on with it shouldn't be.

The battery tender might keep the battery changed, but it also keeps that "short" operational longer, which might not be good if it generates heat.

Check the ignition key warning buzzer, the horn relay, and possibly the seat belt buzzer. IF the horn relay has an issue, there's probably an issue with the turn signal switch (where the horn circuit goes through it) or with the horn switch in the steering wheel itself.

Please advise what you found.
CBODY67

 

[cbendure]

Rear cargo lamp should have a switch - easy to leave on... also check that the brake lights aren't staying on (sticky pedal return).

As above - door switch, glove box door lamp.

Ok I'm trying switching lever other way. Light is burnt out and I do not know how to change it out. The one over the rear back door. The square one. Does anyone know how to change that bulb? I siding want to break it trying to get lamp out of ceiling.

 

[cbendure]

Ok I'm trying switching lever other way. Light is burnt out and I do not know how to change it out. The one over the rear back door. The square one. Does anyone know how to change that bulb? I siding want to break it trying to get lamp out of ceiling.

I so don't want to break it^^^

 

[cbendure]

Although the alternator is new, check the diodes to see that one has not failed. Also get a charging system check, for good measure. Ensure that all battery terminals/cables are CLEAN and dry and solidly-connected.

It has to be something related to "not turning off" something or a chafed wire that's laying on a bare metal surface. On a non-wagon, it can be the trunk light switch. The map light, if equipped, might be staying on, too.

The door jamb switches are simple spring-loaded contact switches. Some times, as with the similar trunk light switch, they can fail and leave the light on with it shouldn't be.

The battery tender might keep the battery changed, but it also keeps that "short" operational longer, which might not be good if it generates heat.

Check the ignition key warning buzzer, the horn relay, and possibly the seat belt buzzer. IF the horn relay has an issue, there's probably an issue with the turn signal switch (where the horn circuit goes through it) or with the horn switch in the steering wheel itself.

Please advise what you found.
CBODY67

So yesterday I also remembered A while back I took the wires for the rear motor for the window and disconnected them because if the window gets rolled down it gets stuck down. So I'm going to go ahead and re-connect those wires and see if that doesn't fix the problem.

 

[cbendure]

Wires in back door not touching anything but I hooked em back up anyhow. I need a new key hole switch or end tire assembly cuz only way I can roll window back up is by crossing pos and neg wires. But good news is motor still works both ways.
Also my grandfather had a toggle switch hooked up underneath the front dashboard for a CBN Tenna I'm thinking it was a power switch so I'm trying to flip that the other way because I'd mess with that before and it doesn't have an on or off on it. Going to borrow a voltage meter from a buddy tonight to chase it down.

 

[bajajoaquin]

I had this issue. Turned out to be a power window switch would get left suck on. Before I figured it out, I got a battery disconnect terminal. You spin it down to get juice and spin the other way to disengage. Keeps you from killing batteries while you fix it right.

 

[celticwarlock]

I agree the battery should be disconnected when the car is not in use. Those trickle chargers make me nervous. This issue should not be hard to hunt down. Although a multimeter is more precise, there's another way.

Make sure everything that is live when the car is shut down is OFF. Disconnect the negative terminal, and touch it lightly against the negative battery post. If there's a circuit somewhere siphoning off juice when the car is off, you'll see a slight spark. Pull fuses out one at a time until there is no more sparking at the terminal. Once you have the circuit isolated, you can track it down from there.