TrippleWhiteGirly

Heres my dilemma. I have an 88 GT Vert. I have been having problems, when I let my car sit for a couple of days.. its dead as a dornail. So I replaced the battery. Same problem. I took it out last night and ran it for about 2 hours straight. I shut the car off and tried to start it again... Dead. I am thinking that its probably the alternator... because it should be charged when I drove it for that long of a time, right? The other thing is.. even when I charge the battery up fully... the starter seams like its really fighting to turn over... could my starter be draining the battery that much? I do have an amp hooked up and I thaught that may be my problem... but I unhooked it.. and still seem to have the same issues. Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

WNDSOR

yeah sounds like the alternator or something draining power constantly. after you drove it for 2 hrs, did turn it off and immediately try to start it again? or did you wait awhile and try it? your starter is draging cause of low juice, now that sounds like battery, your just not keeping the battery charged

LLADNAR

well you can test the alternator,,if you have a good DVOM (digital volt and ohm meter) you can simply test the main wire that feeds the battery,,but you have to put the meter in series,,which means disconect the charge wire from the battery, place the negative lead on the battery's positive terminal and hook the positive lead of the meter on the charge wire,,all while running,,,if the voltage is totally not there or a really low voltage, then hook the charge wire back up at the battery and then un hook it from the alternator and do the same thing only this time hookup to the alternator and the charge wire. now if you get the same results you have a bad alternator but if you have full voltage coming out of the alternator but now out of the cable then you have a bad cable.

if that is all good though try this disconnect the positive terminal switch the meter to amps and place one terminal on the battery cable and place the other on the battery post,,so the cable is not hooke to the battery but is connected through the meter and with the key off if you see a big amp drain then you know that something is draining your battery,,,i think something like 10-15 milliamps is acceptable.

i know this is all very technical but is very doable if you just get a good DVOM

VertStangGT86

If it ran fine for 2 hours then wouldn't start when you shut it off it's probaby not the alternator. If it was the car would have run off the battery's power then died when that was gone. You could have a melted fuseable link, there's is one or two in the charging system. If you can jump the car and then it runs on it's own then I'd check this out instead of the alternator, can't hurt to test that too though, either do it with the multimeter or take it to a parts store and have them test it. If that's not the problem get a wiring diagram and test the appropriate fuesable links for continuity.