I am using freescan to monitor my voltages... When the car is in the "On" postion I am showing 12.4 volts. When I try and crank my car the voltage drops to 6.1 almost immediatly. I was wondering if the battery is toast.

I tried charging the battery for a whole day at the 10amp setting before trying to crank her over. The battery has been sitting for about 1 year in my car while the engine was removed. So possible bad battery?

I get about 4 cranks out of the starter before she just gives up and no more juice. I then have to turn the key to the off position and then try and crank her again.

 

6.1 seems a little low. Mine goes down to 10 while starting.

You should just replace the battery to be safe if you think that anything is awry.

 

Could bad ground connections cause what I am seeing?

 

That is definitely a possibility. I had forgotten you had said your car sat for a year. Check all of your grounds to make sure that none of them have been severely corroded.

 

I went down to my local Walmart... I know Walmart... But it is late 11pm here and they are the only place open. I went ahead and had them test my battery with their machine. I watched them test the battery and it came back good. Now my question is as follows...

1. My battery is a 630 cranking amp battery. Can the battery still test good with their machine if the cranking amps is only say... 300 now due to 10 years of wear and tear etc? They said they dont have a test to check the cranking amps.

2. I have missed some grounds or the grounds arent very well grounded and somehow I am leaking voltage like crazy and not able to start the car.


Like I said, the voltage on my gauge reads 12v and then goes immediatly to 6v when trying to crank the car.

 

What the hell they test batteries at wal-mart too?

 

theres nothing they don't do at walmart............

 

Haha, I know I was suprised too! My battery that was in my car had a sticker on it that said.... Take to walmart free testing.

Anyhow, anyone know of any reason why I would lose such power so quickly? I am going to take the battery to jiffy lube today and have them test the cranking power.

These are the grounds that I am aware of when I hooked everything back up.

On the passenger side of the car there is one ground wire by the number 6 cylinder of the block, it comes from the harness that goes down to the starter.

On the drivers side there is the frame ground by the fuse box, the ignition coil grounds, 3 on one side of the iginition coil stud and I put 1 on the other stud of the ignition coil.

Is there anymore grounds that I missed?

 

there is the big ground to the passenger side engine mount

 

Yah, that one is the battery ground correct? I believe that is hooked up as well I just forgot to mention it.

 

Ok... Stupid me... That ground is not hooked up. I am going to hook it up. Where do you normally mount that ground to on the motor mount. On the long bolt/nut that holds the engine to the mount or the bolt that holds the mount to the frame of the body?

Thanks again guys! Stupid mistakes lead to stupid outcomes.

 

either a threaded hole on the engine side of the mount bracket or one of the bolts holding it to the engine, has to be on the engine side, this is the starter ground

 

I went ahead and bolted the ground to the top bolt of the motor mount that bolts to the engine.

 

did it help??

 

My battery voltage now goes down to 7.1 volts while cranking. It defiantly is better, but not correct.