Hello All,
I have a 1988 Camaro 5.0 throttle body. Its my daily driver. All stock, except for a flowmaster. A while back a nasty short developed, it drains the battery dead overnight. I have changed the Alternator twice,new starter, new ignition switch (the one on the collumm under the dash), and a new battery. Still there, if I pull the plug out of the alternator, the short goes away, so I feel like its in the charging circuit. Wiring and connectors don't seem to be that bad. (Florida Car)
Appreciate any suggestions. Can't drive the car.

Thanks

 

Get a multimeter and attach it in series with the battery in the amp scale. I usually go on the neg (-) side. I prefer a Fluke brand, an AN 77 works fine. Verify that pulling the plug on the altinator will stop the current draw. Sould be down in the milliamp range (computer and radio presets). Anything over about .1 amps is too much current draw. Start removing fuses to determine which circuit is causing the current draw and then trace the wires until the problem is found. My issue was the diode pack in the alt was shorted to gorund, allowing the battery to drain. Yours sounds like a different cause which is blowing those diodes on each new alt unless you received 2 bad alt from the store.
Good Luck.

 

I'm actually on my third alternator. Multimeter shows .6 on the ten amp scale. When I pull the main plug out of the alt. it drops down to almost nothing. I will try to trace the fuse over the weekend. Could it be the ECM, which controls the voltage regulation. Or is that incorrect?

 

i usually take a light bulb and go in series on the fuse board this tells me if its a short to ground am i doing this right???

 

My problem was the volt regulator. I would try to remove fuses and see what happens. Normally an ECM doesn't generate enough current to damage components like that. I'll look through my prints and see what I can.

 

Not sure what you mean. Going in series where?

 

pulling the fuse out of the terminal. and going across the leads where it plugged into.

 

That works if the short to ground is between the fuse and the switch for the load. If it is on the power side of the fuse or the load side of the switch, nothing will be seen. It is a form of half splitting the circuit though. If the load is on, all you are doing is completing the circuit with the light bulb instead of the fuse.

 

Where is the voltage regulator on my 88 camaro??
Thanks

 

It should be inside the alternator. If you take it apart you can see the diodes attached to the case. They should be a large resistance to ground, anything less than 1 ohm is a short.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'll check it out. I have the third alternator on there now, so I honestly think I'm headed down the wrong rabbit trail. May have to take this one to the shop for help.

 

It turned out to be the Engine fan relay that had shorted out and was causing the drain on my battery. I just thought I would post this in case some other Third Gen car owner developes the same problem.