1979 Caprice Classic Electrical Problem

[mthwgrn]

Hi,

I have a '79 Caprice Classic and I am having some problems with it. The car is in absolute mint condition but if I don't disconnect the battery it is drained by the morning.

Before this started happening the actual switch on the steering colum for high/low beams broke so it stays on low beams when the lights are on. Actually these problems were pretty much concurrent. I figured out about the headlights after I jumped the battery.

I am thinking I am going to test every single wire to see if it's live when the car is off to find the one that is killing the battery.

Basically, I was wondering if someone could give me some advice on the easiest way to trace out a short. Or where to start first because maybe it's common for this to happen on certain wires like the glove box light, etc.

Also, I'd like to replace the high/low beam switch so they will switch, I don't need to know how, yet, I just want to know if that's going to be a tough job or what?

Thanks in advance.

Matt

[maxwedge]

See if anything is staying on with the key off first, then pull one fuse at a time see if the drain goes away, then disconnect the main connector at the bottom of the column for the combo switch, see what happens. How to on the switch, should be at autozone.com, repair guides.

[Blt2Lst]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

See if anything is staying on with the key off first, then pull one fuse at a time see if the drain goes away.

That's where I would start..

[j cAT]

the way to find this problem of the battery being drained is to place an ammeter in series with the battery and the vehicle connection..

the current should be about 250MA max...if it is higher remove fuses until you see this current drop ...

if you do not see the current drop then disconnect the alternator wire at the back of the alternator...if the current then drops the alternator regulator is sucking the battery down..this is a common failure...the alternator still can charge but the diodes are not 100% so current flow is occuring...

on older vehicles the door switches causing this are a big problem.

[mthwgrn]

I am going to start the work tomorrow. Thanks for the information. Any other ideas would be great as well but I think I'll sort it out with what's been provided more details would be great to..

[firebirdman81]

I cannot see how the high beam switch is draining your battery because, when the high beams are off, they are off. However if it is the problem, the high beam switch is located on top of the steering column, under the dashboard. Other than getting yourself under there to get at it, I believe it's fairly easy to get.
If this isn't the problem to your battery drainage, you might have a bad battery cable that should be replaced.

[mthwgrn]

I wasn't talking about the high beam switch itself. I was talking about the control arm that you push/pull to switch from high to low beams. It seems to not want to switch to high beams but the left and right blinkers work and so do the low beams so I am just thinking the arm got reefed on by a previous owner and broke the arm so where you pull to turn the high beams on it won't switch it.

Not sure.

A problem I had before was the lights flashing, actually it could still be a problem I haven't looked into it I haven't driven the car since these problems started happening. Here are all the symptoms.

- I can't switch the low beams to high (the arm doesn't click when pulled seems broken)
- The head lights flicker after the car is warmed up
- The battery will drain when the car is off if I don't disconnect it.

I have unhooked the battery and the alternator keeps the car running so it seems the alternator is fine. Could these symptoms all be related somehow and be causing the problem fixable with something easy?

[j cAT]

[quote=mthwgrn;6117219]

I have unhooked the battery and the alternator keeps the car running so it seems the alternator is fine. [quote]

this is not how to check the alternator...just because the alternator will keep the engine running does not rule out a defective regulator...

with the proper test equiptment this is not difficult especially on a 1979....

since you have many common electrical issues you will need a volt meter at the minimum ....all your problems are very common...but not related to a common componet since this vehicle does not have modern computer controlled [ BCM] devices ..