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Corvair Rampside battery/electrical problem

Hello folks,

I have another issue, thats not my old 67 truck, but my dads 62 Corvair Rampside. Besides the fact it stinks of exhaust when you drive it (and therefore, you reek of exhaust), for some reason it drains the battery when it's not in use (which is all of the time).

He now has it in "storage". However, the cause of the battery draining can't be the lack of use, as he checks it regularly.

Anyway, he bought a new battery, figuring the old (min 6 year old) battery just couldn't hold a charge. Turned out that wasn't the case. The new battery worked perfectly well at first. Then he turned it back off, and made sure everything was turned off. The cooling fan, the radio, the cig lighter, the headlights, the blinkers, windshield wipers, high-beams, etc. He made sure that even things that wouldn't turn on w/out the key being unlocked, were off.

The next day (it's not his daily driver) he goes to test it. The brand new battery is dead. So, he charged the battery, and waited till it was mostly re-charged. Turned it on, and everything worked fine. 2 days later, (following the same routine for turning it off) the battery was toast. This has happened about 4 times now.

Anyone have any idea what else there might be thats causing the battery to die on his corvair?

Reply to
Dan
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bad alternator diode ?

Reply to
TranSurgeon

TranSurgeon scribbled:

how would one test for that?

Reply to
Dan

simple test would be to totally disconnect alternator and see if battery still goes dead.................

Reply to
TranSurgeon

TranSurgeon scribbled:

will try that tonite (well, after I re-charge the battery).

Reply to
Dan

Wouldn't a 62 have a generator, or would this still have a circuit of sorts within it?

But it's obvious you have a drain, and the best way I have been told to do so is this. Put a amm meter between a batt cable & the batt. Pull a fuse at a time and see when the load goes away. If that doesn't work, start hunting stuff down that doesn't have a fuse. Have fun!

~KJ/TLGM

Reply to
KJ

KJ scribbled:

in theory a 62 does, but I'm fairly certain this isn't a 62 engine (I think it's a 65, but I'm not sure..)

thats what Im going to do next (after the alternator/volt regular testing).

Reply to
Dan

TranSurgeon scribbled:

while I don't know if this really means anything (or to the degree I think it might)...I charged the battery, (wasn't as dead as I thought) and disconnected the alternator. battery (of course) tested fine. plugged the alternator back in, and I could actually see the battery start to go down. Like 12.90 12.89...12.88...12.87...

I mean, it was just about that quick too.

Reply to
Dan

TranSurgeon scribbled:

tried that, and the battery stayed normal. Plugged back in the alternator, and the battery started to show a decrease. So I unplugged the volt regulator, and tested it. Battery stayed level. Plugged the volt reg back in, battery volts went down. I would hope simple math shows that it's probably the volt regulator.

Reply to
Dan

is this an alternator or generator system ??

I assumed alternator, but a 62 might be either

Reply to
TranSurgeon

TranSurgeon scribbled:

60-64 (as I understand it) had generators. 65-69 had alternators. The engine on his truck isn't a stock engine, so it's more then likely a 65+ (it has the fan shrowd you see on the late 60's model..but I'm not sure which engine exactly it is)
Reply to
Dan

Dan scribbled:

bad volt regulator was the problem.

Reply to
Dan

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