Ok so usually I’m pretty good at electrical stuff being that it’s my job but I’m at a loss for this one. So rewind a few weeks ago on my ‘69 FJ40 with a newly swaped in used 2F engine my battery starts getting weak and dies one morning. I realize that the battery is 4 years old; ok not a big deal it’s time for a new battery.
Now a 3 days later I feel like my new battery is dying. I can tell by the way my starter sounds it’s getting slow. Also FYI I have a FJ60 gear reduction starter that’s only a year old. So after lots of trouble shooting and getting the battery and alternator tested at Oriley’s and myself with my multimeter both pass as good. I measured the draw with the car off and I’m getting a 30mA draw which is fine. This is also a 1969 with no computers there is nothing that should be on to drain it and 30mA is acceptable. The alternator is also fairly new being maybe 2 years old.
So after this I get another battery under warranty from Walmart, and yes it is the right size battery, and I put it in thinking maybe I got really unlucky and a bad battery still passed the test at the auto parts store. So all seems well for about a week. I park the thing for a week and I go back to it yesterday and it’s got nothing. Barley enough to make some gauges move but not even a click from the starter. I check the battery: 5.5 V and a 0.7 mA draw. I am very confused on what can be causing this. Obviously a week can drain a battery somewhat but that much? Also the alternator is putting out 14 V when the car was running and I watch the stock amp meter and it’s been feeding the battery the usual amount of amps when driving. So if the battery is new, alternator is checking good, and there is no draw on the battery, what can this be???? Obviously the whole engine swap thing raises questions especially since I’ve found some questionable work but 30mA is 30mA. If there was a drain on the battery or the alternator wasn’t charging I would know about it. Hoping some cruiser gurus can maybe remeber some old wire that Toyota put in or something crazy that can be causing the problem or maybe Walmart battery’s are just complete garbage lol. Thanks in advance.
Now a 3 days later I feel like my new battery is dying. I can tell by the way my starter sounds it’s getting slow. Also FYI I have a FJ60 gear reduction starter that’s only a year old. So after lots of trouble shooting and getting the battery and alternator tested at Oriley’s and myself with my multimeter both pass as good. I measured the draw with the car off and I’m getting a 30mA draw which is fine. This is also a 1969 with no computers there is nothing that should be on to drain it and 30mA is acceptable. The alternator is also fairly new being maybe 2 years old.
So after this I get another battery under warranty from Walmart, and yes it is the right size battery, and I put it in thinking maybe I got really unlucky and a bad battery still passed the test at the auto parts store. So all seems well for about a week. I park the thing for a week and I go back to it yesterday and it’s got nothing. Barley enough to make some gauges move but not even a click from the starter. I check the battery: 5.5 V and a 0.7 mA draw. I am very confused on what can be causing this. Obviously a week can drain a battery somewhat but that much? Also the alternator is putting out 14 V when the car was running and I watch the stock amp meter and it’s been feeding the battery the usual amount of amps when driving. So if the battery is new, alternator is checking good, and there is no draw on the battery, what can this be???? Obviously the whole engine swap thing raises questions especially since I’ve found some questionable work but 30mA is 30mA. If there was a drain on the battery or the alternator wasn’t charging I would know about it. Hoping some cruiser gurus can maybe remeber some old wire that Toyota put in or something crazy that can be causing the problem or maybe Walmart battery’s are just complete garbage lol. Thanks in advance.
