battery drain..

[Junior Knight]

something keeps draining my battery causing it to have dead cells.everything under the hood is new so my question is... do I have a ground problem? How many grounding straps do I have on my 67 F-100 and where are they located? Thanks for the help!

[1972hiboy]

Charge the battery to get the cells back up. Your going to need a good charged battery for testing. The short story to start going after this is your going to need a good quality digital multi-meter. unhook the neg battery cable and hook the meter in line and see what kind of drain you got with everything switched off and doors close etc etc. From there with something of this age you could pull one fuse at a time until the drain goes away or reduces significantly then explore that circuit. I dont think your looking for a ground problem. aftermarket stereo electronic ignition added on the truck? those kinds of things do draw a little bit more so aftermarket stereo with keep alive. how fast of a drain are you talking?

[cep62]

But... on our old vehicles (this won't work on newer stuff) ,if you don't have a volt meter , you can use a test light in line with the Neg cable .
the brighter the light the bigger the drain .

[Mach428]

I would first charge the battery and take it to a good auto parts store for load testing. It may just be a bad battery, regardless of age

[Junior Knight]

thanks for all the input..this is the 4th new battery this year...all had dead cells..all from auto-zone

[Mach428]

Tell you my experience. I have had tremendous problems with these so called quality batteries from AZ, Pep Boys, etc. I bought a Duracell from Batteries Plus (yes they sell car batteries) no more problems. None

Personally I have never heard of a drainage problem that caused multiple dead cells. I would check for parasitic drain as mentioned and then decide if the battery is a cause or a victim

[Ranchero50]

I agree. If possible, fully charge the battery and let it sit as long as you can disconnected. That should prove or disprove the battery being good or bad. Next on my list is the alternator. Unwire it and let the truck sit long enough to see if the battery is dying.

You have a current drain problem, not a ground problem.

[Junior Knight]

thanks will do that..