I think my battery is dying...

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T-Fish

T-Fish

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...but I can't be 100% sure, as I'm too lazy to go have it tested.

Symptom: I can go out in the garage, start it up just fine, and go cruise. If I shut it down, go into a store and come back out, it doesn't want to start. I'm fairly certain it doesn't want to fire right away due to the carb probably needing to be rebuilt, but that's a different topic. After just turning over for 7-10 seconds, the battery starts dying and has to be jumped. This has happened twice, basically the last two times I drove it. The first time was Monday, which was Memorial Day, so the store was closed. Whoops. Didn't put 2 and 2 together that day. So yeah, I think it's dying.


Second question: What is my alternator gauge supposed to read anyways? Call me stupid, but right now I don't understand how to read the gauge. Goes from -40 to zero and up to +40. The needle should be close to the middle, no? Help a guy understand it, lol.



Thanks!
 
Could be that or the alternator. on the 40/40 guage it should be in the middle or a little to the positive. At least that's the way mine has always run. If you have A/C and running it it will dip to the neg and then jumpt to positive with gas. Then it will level out.
 
xempirex said:
Could be that or the alternator. on the 40/40 guage it should be in the middle or a little to the positive. At least that's the way mine has always run. If you have A/C and running it it will dip to the neg and then jumpt to positive with gas. Then it will level out.
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That's how I thought it worked. No A/C. I did notice that the gauge was considerably more towards the 40+ after it got jump-started, then leveled out to 0, or a shade on the + side, by the time I got home.

Terry, I think you're right. I just noticed that I forgot to mention where I was on Monday when I had issues. I had suspected it was dying prior to that, so I actually went to the store to get mine tested and buy a new battery. Like I mentioned, they were closed. I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.
 
Your's is probably the battery but just last week mine did the same thing. Go out in the morning and spin over just fine and start up. Drive it up the road to get gas or to the store and come out it would barely turn over. Jump it off and do fine. Changed to a real hot battery and did the same thing, turns out the starter would spin over just fine when cold but after it got hot it would drag and drag the battery down with it. Replaced the starter and been doing just fine ever since.
 
In the time it took to write your post, you could have had the battery tested! :) Do that first (it's usually free at your local auto parts store) then work on the carb flooding.
I'm too lazy to answer the 2nd question..... :)
 
What do you want us to do? Use the force? Numm Numm Shaba Numm Numm Shaba....?????Hmmmmm???? The force must be broken today go get it checked then go from there. LOL

Just a little joke.
 
If it's older than it's warranty period I just get another one. My 65 was doing the same thing. The one I took out was small, and 8 yrs old...lol.
 
You might want to check both ends of the battery cables as well, a poor connection can do that too sometimes.
 
Moepar said:
Your's is probably the battery but just last week mine did the same thing. Go out in the morning and spin over just fine and start up. Drive it up the road to get gas or to the store and come out it would barely turn over. Jump it off and do fine. Changed to a real hot battery and did the same thing, turns out the starter would spin over just fine when cold but after it got hot it would drag and drag the battery down with it. Replaced the starter and been doing just fine ever since.
Click to expand...


Well, the day after I posted this I went and had my battery tested. It was dying, so I bought a new one.

I have only driven it a couple of times since, and no trips long enough for anything to get too hot. Just a couple miles here and there. I should have mentioned in the original post that the issues previously mentioned only seemed to take place after the car had been driven for a lengthy (30 miles or so) time and things were able to get hot, so to speak.

Anyways, fast forward to yesterday evening. Went for a short cruise and while passing my parents house en route to my house, my mom flagged me into her driveway. I sat there and shot the **** with her and my dad for a little bit, and didn't shut the car off. The conversation just kept going, unexpectedly. While sitting there my dad asked if replacing the battery helped with the previous issue, and I commented that it seemed to as far as I knew. Then the car died, out of nowhere. We chuckled about it and I figured I'd fire it up and head home. Turned the key, and while it turned over, it didn't seem to turn over as fast as normal and drug the battery down fairly quick. If my car would just fire while it's turning over, it might start, but it seems to take forever for it to fire when everything is hot and the battery gets drug down too far.

So now I'm thinking the starter is shot. I did a quick Google search last night and a guy had a similar problem with his car. Same exact symptoms, or so it seems. The last poster had that problem and it was cured by replacing the starter solenoid.

Here's the link to that thread. A lot of different opinions initially.
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=32363


Thoughts?
 
The starter didn't make the engine die in your folks driveway. Maybe the charging system isn't charging the battery?
 
I know that. That was just a random fact tossed in. I didn't mean to imply it had something to do with it when I know it doesn't.
 
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