rover414 electrical gremlins

I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this little problem? I have just replaced my headgasket on my rover 414 and when I refitted the battery, I connected it the wrong way round. Sparks flew and the horn sounded. The battery then measured about 11V so I charged it up for a while. The nexy day I connected it back the right way and everything worked straight away, battery measured 12.5V, with engine running 13.5V. I have been driving it around for about a month with water in the cooling system and am now satisfied the head gasket is OK, so I then replaced the water with antifreeze. This involved removing the battery, and then refitting it, which was fine, I had the car running for about 1/2 an hour and got rid of all air locks. The next day I came to the car and found the battery was totally dead. Measured it and it was about 2.4V connected to car. Disconnected it and it went up to 8.5V. I have then borrowed a mate's battery and put that on the car (measured 12.5V disconnected). After a couple of seconds of connecting the battery the horns sounds. The current being drawn is about 3A. Has anyone got any ideas? Cheers.

Reply to
<someone
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system and am now

I had the car running for

12.5V disconnected).

There's a good chance that you've wrecked the rectifier diode pack in the alternator. If they are shorting, it'll drain the battery. It needs testing to confirm or eliminate. I think you're going to need an auto sparky for this one.

Reply to
malc

I was wondering if anyone could shed any light on this little problem?

system and am now

I had the car running for

12.5V disconnected).

Disconnect the alternator and see if it's still drawing the same amount of current. The horn sounding is probably nothing to worry about - you've disconnected the battery so you'll need to lock then unlock the car using your key to reset the alarm.

Darren

Reply to
Darren Jarvis

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