Won't Jump Start

[ChrisOIFdoc]

Yeah thats what Im wondering now. The previous owner appears to have had a stereo with amp installed at one point and I believe they left some things attached to the battery that shouldn't be. Now I have the fun job of hunting down what gremlins are left on the system. As I'm looking at it, there appears to be 3 heavy gauge wires coming off the positive terminal, one of them looks none essential, having a hard time tracing it back to where it goes without completely ripping some things. I might just disconnect it for now and see if that changes anything. I did finally get it to jump after several hours of charging which seems kind of odd for me as I've never had a vehicle, no matter how dead, not jump right away. Its probably an amperage thing im sure.

Did you get it figured out?

 

[Freedommaster]

Did you get it figured out?

I'm still trying to figure out what's killing the battery now cause it's dead again. Something is siphoning power while it's not on. It's either that or the battery is junk which is possible (even though it's new). I'd take to get tested but that's not easy where I live which is 30mins away from the closest auto parts store. I haven't had a chance to drive it enough to fully charge the battery yet but it shouldn't be dying over night. I have been driving it around town and it started fine when I did get it jumped and running for a while. I'm gonna do some more looking this weekend when I have time to actually look into it properly. Just seems odd that it won't hold a charge over night now. I'll probably jump it tomorrow morning, drive it a bit and disconnect the battery and see if I just got unlucky with a junk battery.

 

[Bedrck47]

You need to do a parasitic draw test Read the below link Also you put a good charge on the battery

http://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/your-battery-keeps-going-dead-the-parasitic-draw-test.24600/

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

Did you disconnect that amp? You can do a parasitic test first as stated above if you have a fluke, or you can charge the battery again and stick it in your van to find out if it dies again to answer the bad battery question. I don't need to describe much more because you'll know where to go from there. I lived on a ranch for several years far away from stores so I feel your pain.

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

?????

 

[AftonJay]

Check your rear wiper, on my wife's expy that was stuck due to rust and the motor was trying to return it to the rest position the whole time and kept killing the battery. I actually replaced the battery because it kept dying only to have the new die and then I figured out the wiper cause it wouldn't move even with the window open and me trying to move it manually. Good luck.

 

[rjdelp7]

You can make a test light with any 12V bulb. disconnect the negative terminal. Wire the bulb inline, with battery terminal and battery cable. If something is drawing power it will light. I had a stuck CD trying to eject. It killed my battery.

 

[Bedrck47]

You can make a test light with any 12V bulb. disconnect the negative terminal. Wire the bulb inline, with battery terminal and battery cable. If something is drawing power it will light. I had a stuck CD trying to eject. It killed my battery.

Not a very effective test as the vehicle is always drawing power for the anti-theft, radio clock, PCM and possibly a few other systems The best way is to do a patristic draw test. see attached link

http://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/your-battery-keeps-going-dead-the-parasitic-draw-test.24600/

If you do this test and you see an excessive amp draw on the battery you should then start removing fuses to see where you are getting excessive drawn from the battery

Again The battery will always have a small amount of power being drawn at any time Its the excessive draw that will kill a battery

 

[Freedommaster]

Did you disconnect that amp? You can do a parasitic test first as stated above if you have a fluke, or you can charge the battery again and stick it in your van to find out if it dies again to answer the bad battery question. I don't need to describe much more because you'll know where to go from there. I lived on a ranch for several years far away from stores so I feel your pain.

I'm still trying to hunt this thing down, I've disconnected many things from the battery without much luck. I'm starting to wonder if the previous owner may have done some electrical work somewhere in the rear when they had the amount installed so I'm trying to find time to look under the carpets and behind panels for anything that might have been left behind. I've got a lot of things going on with this thing lately. I also need to figure out if my rocker panels are worth fixing or if I should just leave them rusted through. The transmission has a fun little shudder that I hope can be fixed with a fluid change. Seems I bought this thing with a list of problems. Atleast it's a 2V so no cam phasers and I change the spark plugs on my own. I hope to have more time this week to really dig into the rear interior to find the gremlin. I hope it's something as simple as a little amp that wasn't installed properly hidden in a panel or something. I apologise for responding sooner, I thought I set it up to notify me if there were new comments but I guess I did something wrong.

 

[ChrisOIFdoc]

Well good luck, and I love the 2 valve comment . If there is anything under the carpet, then they put it there. All the wiring for the rear AC, amp, tail lights, etc.. runs through the headliner, down the rear door posts, and behind the panels if that helps you any. You could disconnect those harnesses and check for any voltage. Take care.