i recently bought a 91 camaro RS (305, v8) from the papershop. ran great for the first month but am running into a problem with what i believe is the battery. Today it died and i had a friend come jump it. it'll hold the charge for about as long as we let it jump for. Im not to familiar with cars in general but it doesnt seems like it would be the alternator because the car just slowly dies out, will start sputtering and ill get a good 3-4 blocks out of it before it completely dies and i have to pull over.
I plan to take it to autozone tomorrow to check it out but i thought i'd get some opinions first.
thanks!

 

You have three possibilities:
-the battery is dying and can no longer hold a charge (plates and chemicals worn out)
-something it pulling a heavy load on the battery, even when the ignition is shut down
-the alternator is not able to charge the battery

You have to have the battery and alternator load tested. If they are both OK, you have to start looking at the amp draw when you try to start it, and the amp draw when the ignition is shut off.

 

So i took the battery to autozone, and it tested fine for the hour it was there. held a charge and everything. and the date said that its only a year and 2 months old, so it should be fine.
Today i took out the alternator. it smelled a bit funky like a burning smell, and something inside was clanking around if you shook it.
We took it to autozone, they tested it twice and it passed. For the hell of it I went and bought a new one anyway since it looked pretty beat up. Popped that in and it got me home from where i was. It seems to be running fine now but i notice when i put my blinkers on the battery gauge fluctuates a little bit, im not positive if thats normal or not.
Im going to go for a drive tonight so i can see if it runs fine with the lights and everything on.
If not however, does anyone have any other ideas on what could be going on?

 

Today it ran good. did some running around with it but at a graduation party later it wouldnt start. no power at all, not even on the dash. a buddy found out i had a bad ground on the battery terminal. ripped off the rubber part, reconnected. started up fine.
Got it to where i needed to be, but i noticed when i turned my lights on the battery was slowly going down. Juiced it with a friends car, made it 2 blocks from my house and the similiar problem from the beginning happened again. it would just slowly lose power, the lights would dim, and it would die out. Had my roomie jump me and was able to get it home.
I want to say its the battery at this point. the alternators brand new. it just seems like its just not holding a charge. for the hell of it im going to buy a new one tomorrow and hopefully the problems fixed. any ideas?

 

I'm willing to bet you have a dead cell in the battery, and the only sure fire way to check that is to have it hydrometer tested (provided it's non sealed). All the cells need to maintain the same Specific Gravity, any deviation over 50 points is a dead cell. Also if the battery reads under 12.55 volts it should not be load tested. And to properly charge a battery it needs to be done over 24 Hrs at approx 2 Amps.

 

I believe your actually right on the money my friend. I just took the battery once again today to another auto place. they tested it in under 5 minutes, unlike autozones 1 hour test where i THINK they just charged it and sent me on my way. But yeah, they tested it and said I had a dead/bad D cell in it. which im realizing now makes perfect sense. I did check my fuses today as well, and all of those are fine.
Picked up a new battery and im throwing it in as we speak. unfortunatly the one bolt in the terminals not going in all the way so im scouring the house for some washers.
Thanks!

 

Good to see you have it figured out.
Guess I should know what I'm doing since I work for Interstate Batteries.

 

Haha then i would hope so! =P

But yeah its been 2 days now. it runs and sticks at the first notch on the battery gauge. i want to say 10 volts? I notice it fluctuating still when i put my blinkers on. That and it'll go down a little bit when my lights at night are on. But i mean it runs solid and gets me around town. Im still wanting to say there could be some kind of wiring problem somewhere because before all of this happened the gauge would read at least half way at the 13 mark. Taking it to a good buddys garage this week to check it out.

 

Have the alternator tested somewhere else.

 

i replaced both the alternator and the battery with new ones. for the hell of it and for good measure.

 

alright so before replacing things, it would die out within the day. hell a couple hours.

The past 3 days its been staying at the 10 volt line. but i can definatly tell SLOWLY but surely its going down. new battery, new alternator. im not sure what it could be. I want to start leaning towards a wiring problem at this point. It hasnt broken down and lost everything yet, but i want to say it will at some point