Alternator

Hey just did batt. relocation 4 nights ago, and now the car is having a hard time starting...last night I disconnected the battery to see if its being 'drained' by something overnight cus it has more trouble starting in the mornings. It started with less trouble than having it connected all night. Its probably since the engine is cold and needs more juice to get goin and maybe because the battery is drained down, and driving during the day is slowly regenerating it.

Wondering how I check if my alternator is supplying enough power to charge my battery sufficiently? Could I start the car, and then disconnect the battery and measure the voltage coming from the front? And how do I find this thing thats draining my battery during the night? Its not like I rewired the alarm or anything else differently. I just ran the wire directly from the fuse block to the trunk.

Thanks....been reading this site for a while, never posted b4.

 

[mistaVR4]

Hey! Welcome to the board. Do you have a local autoparts store in Hawaii? such as checker, or autozone? If so just take your car there and they can check to see if your battery or alternator is in good shape.

 

[ken inn]

hawaii? i used to live there. there IS a checker auto parts, in kailua. used to be andy's drive in, one of my favorite hangouts. iirc, the very first drive in there. andy wong. made a killing on that place, paid for it in 2 years. burger, fries, and a coke, 49 cents. ooo. craig's bakery. best long johns EVER. haupia cake. guava cake. that's gone, too. i dont ever want to go back. what was the question?

 

[Polish]

If you didn't ground the battery very well in the back it will limit current and cause the slow starting.

See my posts in this thread for more information.

 

i did my relocation to the trunk a few days ago. im having the same problem with hard starting. im thinking its a grounding problem. i ran my ground back up to the engin bay. what did you do? i am planning to put a seccond ground in the trunk as well. what size cabeling is everyone running from the bat??

 

[Polish]

Click the link I posted above. The ground should be in the back. Having one ran up front isn't a bad idea but you need a short direct to chassis ground using large gauge (0,1,2) wire also. Having it that long is causing a lot of resistance.

 

thanks. is there once place thats better than others for attaching a grounding cable in the trunk?

 

I ran two big grounds in the trunk one of them to strut tower. Also made sure everything was sanded down to bare metal. THe alternator seems to be doing its job so I guess ill have to see if my batt. is putting out all the CCAs it should be! Might also add bigger wire from fuse block to starter, from fuse block to alternator. I hate to think its my batt., (optima red) since i bought it like 3 months ago...oh well,warranty