I need help, advise and suggestions please. I've had to change out the battery twice now and if the car sits for more than 3 days the battery is completely dead. I cleaned all the terminals to the battery and I install in a new battery. Fires right up. When it first starts the Amperes gauge needle inside points to "C" and continues to be in this position while I drive. So far so good. After about 15 minutes of driving the Amperes gauge needle plays between "O" and "C". At this point, I notice that every time I signal the needle leans more towards "D" and "O" and at stop lights the needle falls all the way to "D". But once I start moving the needle stays at "O" and slightly towards "C". I park the car in the garage and come back 3 days later and now its not starting. All electrical is dead. Are there electrical connections I should be checking? What would you recommend I look closely at? Any help or trouble-shooting would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. p.s. The car does not have an alarm. I did not leave the lights on.
sounds like a bad ground. buuut, now the fun part is pinpointing that bad ground :rant: it could be anything from your main ground to something as small as a fuel sender ground shorting out. grab a voltmeter and start chasing wires. or at least take some time and trace all visible wiring, you might get lucky and run across an obvious trouble spot. is this still the original wiring? not to be pushy, but IMO i would do a complete re-wire. i had a 52 plymouth catch fire on me while my wife and i were on a backroad cruise, luckily i had an extinguisher. after that every older car that passes thru my garage gets rewired. it really isnt that tough to do, just take one section at a time and the tangled mess begins makes sense. good luck, and remember to have fun!
is the battery defective? is the generator defective? is the voltage regulator defective & shorting out. if the voltage regulator is bad, it can drain the battery even with the switch turned off. i do not believe it to be a grounding problem. i lean towards the voltage regulator. the firstt thing u need to do is obtain a meter to check to see if something is drawing juice when the switch is off. disconnect the negative cable from the battery and then connect the meter cables to the neg cable & the neg terminal on the battery. should read zero. if it fluctates or reads below 12 volts, u have a power draw. u start pulling fuses until u find the culprit.
You are describe ing two problems. First one sounds like a charging problem. Sounds like a bad voltage regulator. The second is called a draw. All you need to find a draw is nothing more then a test light. Remove the negative cable from the battery and connect the test light between the cable and the battery. If you have a draw , the light will be on. Now to find the draw is where the fun begins. In your case, I would start by disconnecting the voltage regulator. If the light goes out, you found the draw , and I have a hunch that you found the chargeing problem too. If the light stays on, then the hunt continues. Now you go to the fuse panel[box]and remove one fuse at a time till the light goes out. Keep track of where each fuse goes. When the light goes out ,you have now found the circuit that the problem is in.Now you get to figure out what is the problem with that circuit. Good luck:TU: Loren
Thank you all for your help. This will help us trouble-shoot the problem. josh7652, Yes the car still has the original wiring from 1956. Because the wiring is so old, I'm definitely planning to rewire everything once I figure this battery issue out. I've been researching here on V8Buick.com and the web for a recommended rewire kit owners have used successfully in the past. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks gstewart, The batt. is not defective. Both the generator and/or regulator may be defective. I have already ordered a new regulator to start the process of elimination. I will also do the voltmeter check like you suggested and update. Thanks for your help. la 65 gs, Im crossing my fingers that its a bad voltage regulator causing this. I've ordered a new one and if that doesn't fix my problem I will continue to trouble-shoot using your suggestion and update on my progress. Thanks. Cheers, Manny
sure sounds like the points in the regulator are sticking.with the key off,see if you have power going to the "A" terminal of the gen,if so the reg is bad.or,unhook the wire going to the "BATT" terminal of the reg & see if the draw goes away.
Manny, Depending on how close to original you are wanting to go, I have used a place clled Rhode Island Wireing Service. Good people to work with. I see that they don't list '56 Buick, but they do list '55 & '57. Might be worth a call. their email: www.riwire.com good luck, Loren
This board is a great resource. Thank you all. I putting in a new regulator tomorrow and I'll update as I go. Thanks again. Loren, I found that site while researching rewire kits, but I didnt pay much attention to it because 1956 was not listed. But I'll contact them anyway and see what they can do for me. Thanks
Complete rewiring can be a real pain, avoid that if the isolation of your wires is still good. If it's not the regulator it might be the generator. I had the same problem for a while caused by a bad soldering point inside. Generators are pretty cheap at rockauto.com. About the battery going dead while standing, did you put in a custom audio system ? These sometimes use power even when shut off.
If the battery takes 3 days to go dead , I dont think that the voltage reg is stuck. It may not be set high enough. I would look for a drain on the system like a light bulb some where that is burning. ck the glove box light and the trunk light. The old radios would run a battery down over night, and if the voltage reg. sticks it will run the battery down over night. If the gen belt is loose it will not charge enough to keep the system up. The other possibility is that the battery has a dead cell in it and is discharging its self. if one of the lead plates warps it will kill the cell and no amount of charging or any thing else will solve the problem. Loren, pretty well has the proceedure down. follow that and get the battery tested to see if it will hold a charge. This is exactly why I hate electrical problems, it is like a blind dog in a meat house......................
Doc, Electrical problems are quite a job to solve , but the feeling of satisfaction when you do find and fix the problem is great. At least it was for me , when I was a tech. I found that the more of them that I worked on , the easier it got. The thing to keep in mind when doing any repair, is to "KISS" it. "Keep It Simple Stupid". Most often over thinking the problem , made the solution more difficult to find. Allways start with the basics.:Brow: Loren
I ordered the regulator, but delivery has been delayed until this tuesday.darn. Captain, no I dont have an aftermarket sound system. I still have the stock, but its either not working or the speaker is blown. The radio was on the "ON" position and I wasnt aware of this or considered it until Doc mentioned it may be the cause. Doc, as mentioned above, the radio was the "ON" position and I was not aware. As for the trunk and glove box lights, I removed both lights just in case. I'll check them for any draw once I install the battery, regulator and generator. The generator belt was loose the first time the battery died, but I fixed the tension on the belt when I installed the new battery. I drove the car for a little bit, but 3 days later the battery was dead again. Will update soon. Thanks so much everyone
There is a light bulb inside the radio that would be on when the switch is on even if the radio doesnt work. if a battery is completely drained it takes a lot of charging to bring it back up to a full charge with a generator. My folks had a 56 super that when we took it on a long trip, after about 150 miles of steady driving , at highway speeds, the lights would get considerably brighter when the battery would reach peak charge. The 56 radio was not a transister radio and would pull a battery down pretty quick, add to that the fact that a generator will not charge like an alternator, and you come up with a good battery drainer. I remember that if a car was just sitting and we would be listening to the radio for an hour, it was a lot of drain on the system.
Update. The battery continues to die. My father and I, installed a new generator and regulator. Polarized the gen. Drove the car for about 40 miles with no problems. The amp meter was charged (O) or charging (C) during this drive and never went into the discharge (D) area. Good. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comhttp://www.v8buick.com/ /><o></o>[/COLOR] <font color=" /><o></o> <FONT color=black>Fast forward a little... It was getting dark so I decided to turn on the headlights. I noticed, while waiting at a stop light, that the amp gauge was at discharge (D). Oh no! I continued to monitor this while driving and the amp gauge would only read "D" if the car was in gear while at a stop. If the car was in "Park" or "Neutral" while at a stop, the gauge read "O". <FONT color=black>We drove back to the garage to try to figure this out. My father did a test with the motor running, the trans in "Park", the headlights ON and disconnected the battery. The motor continued to operate as normal. But once I put the car in gear, everything shut down. <FONT color=black>This is as far as we got that night, but we are looking for a reputable mechanic to help find the problem and a fix. <FONT color=black>It looks to be more than just a regulator or gen. issue. The car drives like a dream though. As long as I disconnect the battery everytime its parked, everything is ok. <FONT color=black><FONT color=black>Thank you for everyones help and input.
one thing you need to watch for is the pulley diameter.different pulleys for different engine rpm applications,all gm & ford pulleys will interchange the shafts.these stamped fan/pulley combos are very prone to damage.if a rebuilder does a generator & needs a fan/pulley,its VERY doubtfull he will actually resource which one is on the gen at the time of sale/stocking. and i must ask the obvious...you did get 12 volt stuff...right?
I actually had this same problem but luckily i found the one of the generator brushes copper wire had pulled out.(after i had changed the Volt. reg. it was50 yrs old) So i had the generator rebuilt and problem solved. I do remember reading in the shop manual something about needing 1500 rpm's(?) or a speed of about 30mph for the generator to charge. And with my lights and radio on at a stop,my ammeter shows slightly on the discharge side. But as soon as i hit the gas it jumps right back up. late chad
You should expect the amp meter to be in the discharge zone when idling and using electric accessories. Since you said the amp meter was neutral at idle when not using anything and charging to neutral when cruising, your system is probably close to it's operational limits. Keep in mind that generator only kicks out 35 Amps when running the car at cruise speed. The generator for the A/C cars only puts out 55 amps. Neither is close to the power house of todays alternators. but still, if your battery is dead in 3 days you still have a drain there. I would check the trunk light. The light turns on when the trunk is open by a small amount of mercury inside the base of the light socket. To adjust this just easily bend the bracket so the light is less angled when open . Or just pull the bulb and see if you still have a drain. Another problem could be the dash board courtesy light. The dash board light has the separate switch for the map light above the radio. The dome light has a switch to turn on both the dome light and the map light. Also the headlight switch can be turned to turn on both lights, MAke sure all are off. If you have no interior lights check to make sure the door jamb switches are not shorting out. Good luck JD Last, if need be, follow the wires under the rug looking for cracked insulation, and repair as needed..
65specialconver, Yes I made sure to get the correct 12v regulator and the gen. 55special, Thank you much for the info JohnD1956, Thanks for the input, John. I removed the trunk light bulb after other members mentioned that may be a possibility for the drain. Very good suggestion about the courtesy light. Thanks Ill make sure they are off. And check the wire underneath the carpet for any cracked insulation. It may take some time to go thru all the wires i can access and inspect them, but I will update this thread as needed. Thanks again everyone!
What I do when I have unknown current draw is to put a DVM on the amps scale, disco a battery cable and place the probes in series. Then start pulling fuses until the amp draw goes away. At least you'll know which circuit to start troubleshooting.
I had a 68 Firebird convertible and the battery would run down in it. I pulled it apart from one end to the other. Nothing could be found other than it was pulling current. I knew the alternator was good because I'd just had it rebuilt a while back. I asked my son, a ASE Certified Master Tech and a Nissan Master Tech, what he recommended. Now, I raised the boy on wrenches and old cars/trucks. He told me to park the car pointed toward the north. Hook the battery up, making sure the barrery was charged, and let it pull the power from it as it would do when sitting. Take a compass in your hand, with the needle pointing and aligned in the northerly direction, then move the compass over your electrical items and wires. When the needle moved I would find the short. I laughed my patootie off at him for trying to pull one on me. But he kept insisting that he wasn't fooling. So, at my wits end, I did it. But I did it without telling him, just in case. I started near the battery and proceeded up the wires. When I got to my alternator the needle on the compass took off toward the west just as he told me it would when I was over and near the short. I removed the alternator and the idiot that rebuilt it left a paper clip in the hole that holds the brushes back for assembly. I know you might not believe this, but it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I worked on that car for hours and hours pulling stuff apart and all I needed was a compass. He told me it might work on the channel your wires run through in the door if the carpet and stuff wasn't too thick also.
