puremick

First, hello to all and thanks for any help in advance!!
I own a 1966 200/6 Emberglo Convertible that was sitting in my sisters climate controlled garage for about 8 years! I recently had it trailered to me in New York, now that I have a garage, in hopes of getting her running again. It's a numbers matching vehicle that has zero rust and is straight. So I got it here and the battery was as dead as can be. I dropped a new battery in it and it tried to turnover. It has a tranny fluid leak now, which it never had when I used to drive it. I am guessing some seal dried up but that will be handled by a real professional. I am basic with mechanics. I got new plugs, mystery oil, tranny oil, some "fix the tranny" fluid(don't have the bottle in front of me so I can't remember which brand). I took out the old plugs, poured some mystery oil in each cylinder, new plugs in, put the tranny fluids in, cleaned up the carb which was still pretty clean, used some quickshot starting fluid, and she started. I didn't run it for long because all fluids are old and they need to be flushed, changed, etc.. I have some white smoke coming out the exhaust and there was a little smoke coming from somewhere at the bottom of the engine. My biggest issue, well maybe not, at the moment is trying to figure out why the battery keeps dying! I bought a new battery, started it up, and left it without the key in the ignition. Come back and the battery was dead as can be. Wouldn't take a trickle charge and was giving me a blinking sequence that the battery is dead. I brought it back, got another battery under the warranty, dropped it in and started it up again. Guess what, battery is dead again and won't take a charge. I have never had a problem with the battery in the past and I am trying to figure out what is shorting it or why this is happening. Any ideas? I am also looking for advice in general on getting a car that has been sitting that long, road ready so any help is appreciated. Thanks

Urambo Tauro

Some "smart" chargers won't even attempt to charge the battery if it is under a certain voltage. I have successfully worked around this by attaching a jump-box to the battery (you could also use another battery with jumper cables) and charging them together in parallel. I let them slowly charge @ 2amps overnight, and it was ready to go the next day. If the battery is not sealed, make sure it has plenty of water.

But you need to locate the source of the drain. Could be a lot of things, but if you isolate the circuit (pull fuses) it will be much easier to find. Use a multimeter to check for amp draw.

bop11

Sounds like either the regulator is stuck or you have bad diodes in the alternator. The regulator is just a set of relays. The voltage one opens and closes at a high rate op speed depending on the charge in the battery. One of them is a cutout so the battery doe not try to turn the alternator into a starter. If it is stuck open no charging, stuck closed battery discharges. Don't bother trying to adjust it , just get a new one.