Electrical Problem

[John Hofstetter <hofs@domain.elided>]

>Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:08:05 -0600
>From: "Chris Mazur" <mazur@domain.elided>
>Subject: electrical problems...HELP!
>
>I seem to have developed a electrical short somewhere in my 73 Scout II.
>It must be a little one b/c the battery isn't draining down too quickly,
>but it has once.  Any suggestions as to where to start looking (meaning
>likely culprits); for the time being I'm going to hook up a master kill
>switch to kill any power from the battery after I turn her off.
>
>Also, the blinkers have become real slow lately, and yesterday they stopped
>altogether; could this be part of my short problem?  Also, what would be
>causing this to happen in the blinkers?  I also have the radio hooked up to
>the same fuse as the blinkers, and the radio isn't working.  When I hot
>wire the radio into another fuse, still nothing.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Thee electrically ignorant
>
>P.S. What makes it worse, I've been planning to do some field work for a
>couple of weeks now, and I was planning on useing the Scout tomorrow for
>just that; hell, if I have to push it through the Texas Hill Country this
>week then that's just what I'll do!
>
>\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
>Chris Mazur                                 SFASU Geology Department
>409-468-4902 voice                    P.O. Box 13011
>409-468-2437 fax                       Nacogdoches, TX  75962
>mazur@domain.elided
>http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Union/5653/mazur.html
>
Chris,
The first two things you need to do are to make sure that your battery is
taking a charge. I think you have a battery that is no longer  able to take
a charge and unable to tell the alternator to put out high enough voltage
to run your stuff. The second thing to check is your alternator. Most any
parts house can test it for you, free of charge. But the battery is first!
I've had a lot of experiences with symptoms like this, but I had a Diehard
Gold that was only a month or so old and I refused to listen to my brain
until I had done everything else I could think of. It was the Diehard.
John

John Hofstetter a.k.a. Ol'Saline, who's been a lot of places none of us is
allowed to go anymore and that's a real tragedy, and who to quote the
senator from Texas, "has more guns than he needs but not as many as he
wants"
79 Scout Terra with 8000 lb. Warn Winch, Detroit Locker in rear and limited
slip in front, 4" Trailmaster lift kit, Holley Electronic Fuel Injection,
Mallory Unilite Distributor                                  MSD ignition
"It's a legend", but it's too darn long and too darn wide sometimes to go
where I ask it to go.

National Rifle Association Life Member   California Rifle and Pistol
Association
Blue Ribbon Coalition                    Friends of Death Valley
Sierra Macintosh Users Group             MacTwain Macintosh Users Group
Association of California School Administrators  Life Member