leofd3s

I just got my 84 FB its the 13b
everytime i turn it off and leave it over night i get no voltage in the morning
i just bought a new duralast the one right before gold, it was 90 dollars at autozone, and they found it for my car and everything, and when we first put it in it was beautiful, the car only has 35 thousand miles but it was never garaged and wasnt driven cause the owner couldnt drive stick. Everything is fine in the car except that everytime i try i need a jumpstart and after that jumpstart its good for the day
right now the battery is unplugged and its sitting in my garage. What could it be?! And sometimes the instrument cluster doesnt light up and the tach and speedometer dont move. BUT the radio and all the lights on the a/c and all of that works. WHAT IS WRONG?!

ultimatejay

iTrader: (1)

Well, first thing you want to do is test your battery and alternator. If those two check out ok then you most likely have a parasitic amperage draw- IOW you have a consumer that is staying on when your car is off, causing your battery to go dead over a period of time. To test this you will need a fully charger battery and a voltmeter. Disconnect the negative battery terminal and set your voltmeter to measure milliamps and connect the negative and positive cables from your meter to the negative battery post and negative cable- with the cable off the battery. You want to measure less than .050A which is 50 milliamps. The higher the draw the quicker the battery will be drained. Most common draws come from Radio, alarm systems, glove box lights, clocks, control modules. To isolate the draw, with the Amp meter connected start pulling fuses until the draw goes away. Look to see what is located on that fuse and then disconnect that module/light, etc. There may be several consumers on one fuse so you may need to disconnect several consumers to find the draw. Good luck.

leofd3s

well when i turn it off i hear a fan on and i pulled on something under the steering wheel and it stopped, and its just a tiny clicking and i looked and looked and i never found it moving so then i was just messing with buttons and i found that, and also today i was cleaning it, and under the shift boot there is an unplugged cable, and i dont know where it leads to, is there like a wiring chart or something for the FB? i really need to see the layout of all the electronics. anything helps
also
umm wheres the alternator? sorry first rx7 I've ever owned

BlackWorksInc

The FAQ has a link for the Factory Service Manuals.

What is this switch you're talking about? because depending on what it is it probably is draining enough amps to kill your battery.

MattG

iTrader: (2)

Thats ok, this is what we are here for.



That is the Alternator right above the upper radiator hose.

leofd3s

im not sure what the switch is but its RIGHT under the steering wheel like next to the gas thing and the hatch thing, i just kind of tugged on it and it stopped right after, it might have been a coincidence but i doubt it it stopped as soon as i pulled, i tried looking for a picture here and on google of what im talking about but nothing its like perfectly in the center, its black and, to my knowledge, it has no other purpose but to cause confusion

leofd3s

let me just say that WOW looks exactly like my bay haha
and thank you makes it soo much easier to see what you are talking about, but what exactly is it that might be wrong with it? something loose? i tugged on a couple of wires everything seems secure

MattG

iTrader: (2)

No something is on causing it to run down the battery. How long did the new battery work for when you put it in?

The alternator is not designed to recharge a dead battery but only to recharge it from the drain of starting and then its main goal is to run the electrical system. alot of people forget that.

Do you have a volt meter? If not get one, you are dead in the water on this problem until you do.


Also where in Texas?

leofd3s

im in laredo texas
and i can get my battery checked out fo free at autozone
but i JUST got it like i got the car yesterday and got the battery yesterday and today i was gonna take it out of my garage to wash it and no luck turning it on, i had to jump start and went for a little ride just to get it going a little
there was no corrosion what so ever on where the battery gets "plugged in" and i put on that grease or whatever it is that they give you

BlackWorksInc

You know I had a similar problem a long time ago... ended up being an alarm relay that had broken and was drawing so much amperage that in 3 hours a battery would die. 4 batteries later (Costco is so nice to give such good warrenties ) the last one melted had the post melted off because the amps were so great I was gonna bolt the negative terminal on and it arc welded basically.

Ended up the PO had the alarm installed but with no fuse protection so that when the relay went bad there was nothing for it to trip.

Perhaps something similar?

leofd3s

oh my god now that i think of it, the alarm on the hatch is unplugged
i just downloaded the wiring diagram so im gonna check it out see what i can do
your brilliant demonspawn67! and i have a 1 year warranty on that sucker

Sgt Fox

iTrader: (3)

If it hasn't been said, get the alternator tested. I had a blown voltage regulator in an alternator that caused the battery to drain while parked.

leofd3s

how much did that set you back?

Rx-7Doctor

iTrader: (13)

AutoZone will test your alternator for free.

leofd3s

haha yeah i said that in an earlier post

thunkrd

iTrader: (1)

take a pic of the switch. that could be the culprit

Rx-7Doctor

iTrader: (13)

If you want to solve the issue then get the alternator tested to eliminate that and then perform the drain test as posted by the member who was kind enough to take the time to supply you with the information. :-)

thunkrd

iTrader: (1)

haha yea that was my original thought in the first place

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Your symptom is typical of some sort of drain taking place even with the switch off.

Get your alternator checked first - - that's just basics.

What you need to have done, though, is a cold-circuit load test: the amperage drain on the battery when the key is off needs to be measured using an ammeter, to determine if you have an unnecessary drain on the battery.

I had a stereo in my car once, aftermarket, that would run the battery dry in three days like clockwork. It drew so much current for the "keep my stations programmed" function that the battery would go dead unless it was started every two days.

As pointed out above, failure of some things (alarm systems, relays, etc) that are still connected ot the battery when the key is off, can cause this. Aftermarket electric fans that don't shut down after teh car is off are famous for this, too. Stuck dome light switches, etc.

leofd3s

It cant be anything aftermarket cause its completely stock, but yeah im gonna get the alternator checked out then post back here, also the defroster on the hatch is unplugged AND the wiper motor is too and i went ahead and plugged them back in, the previous owners broke the piston(lol piston) on the right side and they never bothered to plug anything back in

leofd3s

Hey everyone, its me again, its the defroster on my hatch, its unplugged and the manual said to clean with paint thinner and then paint it with silver paint, anybody done this before? Link to another thread?

reisama

iTrader: (1)

Strongly doubt that having something unpluged would cause drainig.
ot trying to be negetive but i know you said it's your first RX-7 but things like altenators look exactly the same on ALL cars and can easily be identified. With that i would strongly sugest getting help from a local friend who has more experiance with cars.

I'm a new to rx-7s and restorations myself, and have done greats amount of work and learned alot from this community, in respect to rx-7s. So all the power to you for trying to fix this yourself.

If you do want to continue troubleshooting this yourself, here are my tip for you.

Check all your fuses, take them out, insepct them, test them.

This might sound silly, but i have seen and had wierd issues, like front wiper blades turning on, when you tried turning on rear wiper because of a blown fuse to the heater( i think).

leofd3s

i'm pretty sure there are some blown fuses, ALL wipers don't even attempt to move i'm gonna check out the fuses though, im pretty sure something is messed up cause it wasn't garaged before and both doors leak A LOT, and i dont know but maybe in some miraculous way water found its way somewhere, also, there's a wire under the shift boot, its unplugged, and im not sure of what it does, all i know its unplugged and under the power window switches there's a switch that says left front right and back, i THINK, (letters are faded) well anyway that chunk can be taken out with no effort whatsoever just a lift with the pinky, what is that? The power window switches work great by the way, not the windows, but that's not as big as a priority as this. just thought i'd throw some of those in

thunkrd

iTrader: (1)

the wire at the shift boot is a power for the automatic tranny shifter light

thunkrd

iTrader: (1)

the joystick is for the factory audio.