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electrical problems

I'm really not sure where to start with the electical problems I've been having with my '68 bug. She has dual carbs and a 1776 cc engine. She'll sit and drain out the battery. Assuming that my battery is charged and at full power, where do you reccommend I start?

I followed Muir's book on testing the starter and solenoid by connected the different connections with the car off to see if they would make a whirring noise. They didn't whir, but I did see sparking on the connections. Could they just be dirty connections? Would a bad starter or solenoid drain my battery?

Overall, I am not very experienced with the electrical system of my car. The place I was taking it to in CA did not help, they only added to the wires that have no ending and are just hanging around not connected to anything. I tapped these up, but I would really like to rewire her completely because it's a mess in there. Any suggestions? I picked up Chilton's manual as a start but Id like to do this with as little fuss as possible.

Please help and inexperienced bug owner!

Thanks for all of your suggestions and taking the time to read this :)

Reply to
kt.stefani
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Let's deal solely with the battery drain for now.

Beg/borrow/steal a multimeter.

Remove battery cable on the Negative post; that's the bare/braided cable.

Set multimeter to the milliamp function. If the range is selectable, set to some high ma range.

Connect the meter RED lead to the braided cable end. Connect the meter BLK lead to the battery NEG post.

If the meter reads BELOW ~50ma, there is no significant drain. In this case, it's possible the battery is simply NG.

If the meter reads way OVER ~50ma, start disconnecting things till it drops. Easy way is to pull fuses under the dash.

If the engine is equipped with Alternator, this could be causing it. Disconnect the big Red wire on top of the Alternator (B+ terminal). If the meter reading drops to normal, the alternator has bad diode(s).

Report back...

Speedy Jim

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Reply to
Speedy Jim

Hi! How old is the battery? I had a 5 year O Reily battery that died after only 2 years 3 months. Someone told me that Auto Zone and Advance Auto sell pretty good batteries. I think Speedy J. has some really good ideas.

Reply to
Jim347a

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