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Bad alternator or power draw?

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numberoneactor Avatar
Detroit, MI, USA   USA
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So my Midget recently stopped starting on her own. I've had the car 6 months or so and it's always fired right up no problem. Then I went to start it the other night and got nothing, just a click. I ran some jumpers and got it running, drove around for a while, shut it off and within a few minutes of taking the key out it was completely dead again. My guess would be the alternator.. If it was a power draw shouldn't it take a while to suck all of the power out of the battery when its just sitting in the garage? The weird thing is that I pulled the radio last week because the speakers are really really quiet. I have an old tape deck in there and it works but the sound is so faint you can't even hear it with the engine running. After pulling the radio, I found that a ton of the wires back there were all frayed so I cleaned up the connections and put some new electrical tape on it. I didn't make any new connections or remove any old ones, but I have a weird feeling that my tinkering may have triggered this issue. Any ideas on the best way to try and isolate the problem?

Thanks!

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James E Avatar
James E Jimmy Campbell
Bedford, VA, USA   USA
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Is the red light on the dash working? Do a load test on the battery.

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littlecars Avatar
littlecars David Bassett
Nashville, TN, USA   USA
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1963 Chevrolet Corvair "Cheeto!"
1965 Chevrolet Corvair "Ski Team Transport SOLD!"
1965 MG Midget MkII "Buffoon --- SOLD!!!"
1966 MG Midget MkII "Swiss Cheese...SCRAPPED"    & more
The speakers on these cars, and the amplifiers to drive them back in the day, were originally something like 4 ohm. US cars went to 8 ohms in the same period. If an American system was installed in the car and only 4 ohm was pushing the sound to them they would indeed sound VERY, VERY, FAINT. As far as the draw on your electrical system the tape deck/radio may actually be drawing power after the key is removed if it was wired incorrectly to begin with. It may be old enough to where it doesn't have the telltale little red light saying that it's powered, but asleep.

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66jalopy Avatar
66jalopy Phillip Jolliffe
Lake City, FL, USA   USA
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Charge the battery with a charger, slow charge overnight. connect one terminal, connect a 12vdc probe between the other terminal and the cable, if it lights up you have a draw somewhere. Connect cable, start car, is there over 14 vdc read out at battery? there should be.

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1979 MG Midget 1500
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