SomeCarGuy said:
No, I have a Die Hard that's about 5 years old. BTW, it's been turning the car over with no problems. I tried the battery I had in my '65 'Cuda which still had a good charge. It didn't make a difference, still no charge. I had already tried the pull a cable trick and it does shut the engine off. But I had taken the alternator and had it tested which showed it's find, no problems with it. I traced all the wires best I could to check for continuity with a meter. I didn't find any problems there. I pulled the bulk head connectors, checked the in and out lines from the amp meter and got a reading there, so I assume that's ok. While apart I sprayed with an electrical cleaner, then applied dialectic grease and reassembled them. I even swapped the good voltage reg form the '65 to the car, that also didn't make a difference!
One thing I haven't figured out. I charged the battery overnight with just the neg cable removed. After removing the charger today and while pulling wires off the ballast resistor to check the wires, I noticed it was very warm. So I pulled it off, checked it with the meter, it was still good. I tried another BR I had for the hell of it, still no charge, but after I shut it off I saw smoke coming for the BR, and it was also very warm. I pulled that one off and saw that the coil on the back of it had a burnt look to it, but it still tested good on the meter. I put the original BR back on, and after doing the other work I mentioned I tried it again, and of course still no charge, but the BR stayed cool.
Don't know if this is a factor, I had a volt meter installed recently. It was working fine when I first got the car back from that, and other work. I may have to have the guy look at it when I take it down to him for a front end alignment in a few weeks! Is there a simple way to check the voltage reg to see it it's working properly. FWIW, I know it's electronic.
