Car wont charge battery.

**juiced99ws6** · 07-14-2007, 05:41 PM

Ok so I put a new battery in my car the other day because my old one tested bad and wouldnt take a charge, now I have a brand new battery in the car and I drove it around yesterday and it was doing fine, started about 4-5 times with no problems other than the battery never read very high readings only around 9v on the battery gauge (just above the yellow line) today I started the car twice on my way to drop it off at the shop to get it tuned and after that they had to jumpstart the car a few times and jumped it for me to get home. The car still will not charge the battery. I had the alternator tested and it checked out ok and I dont see any obvious things disconnected however I didnt get deep into it.

What else would you all recommend that I check? any specific connectors or ground wires I could have missed when I put the engine back in? it seems to me like a bad battery because before I messed up the old battery it didnt seem to have any problems holding a charge (until I drove it home with no belt and then left for cali for a month with the battery dead in the car)

**juiced99ws6** · 07-14-2007, 05:56 PM

I did a little research and found that a bad starter soleniod can cause what it happening so I will be checking that out tomorrow morning but any other suggestions are welcome so I can attack it from different angles tomorrow

**0rion** · 07-14-2007, 09:34 PM

do you have a multimeter? Check across the terminals with the car running. If the alternator is doing it's job it should be showing about 14.4 volts. Other than that I'd just start chasing wires.

**juiced99ws6** · 07-14-2007, 10:34 PM

I would do that but I am convinced it is the starter so tomorrow first thing im gunna do is jumpstart the car and disconnect the starter. I already found a new one on ebay for 60$. My car wouldnt start a couple days ago until I tapped some hot jumper cables to the starter and broke it loose. After that she fired up just fine but all the was also the start of this charging problem. I am awaiting a new timing chain cover as well. After that and I figure out this charging issue the car will be dyno tuned. it was supposed to be today but you cant tune a broken car I guess

**B34M3R** · 07-16-2007, 10:54 PM

While it could be the starter solenoid, it might not be. When you jumped the starter like that, you could have easily melted the fusible links... I should know, I did it to my cavalier 3 times when my starter was acting up. (the cavy is basicly the easiest motor to jump the starter on ever, I could do it in 10 seconds flat... in the dark.) I eventually replaced the links with some regular wires... but thats not really recommended. They are they to protect the alternator/battery.... but when push comes to shove a running car is a running car.

Check them out if the prob persists after you change the starter...

**0rion** · 07-16-2007, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by B34M3R

While it could be the starter solenoid, it might not be. When you jumped the starter like that, you could have easily melted the fusible links... I should know, I did it to my cavalier 3 times when my starter was acting up. (the cavy is basicly the easiest motor to jump the starter on ever, I could do it in 10 seconds flat... in the dark.) I eventually replaced the links with some regular wires... but thats not really recommended. They are they to protect the alternator/battery.... but when push comes to shove a running car is a running car.

Check them out if the prob persists after you change the starter...

good post and you may have answered a question I've had for ~ 19 years.

Back when I was ~17 I had a 75 cutlass. I was out fishing and pulled off the road and hit a pot hole and the car died. I get out and popped the hood and the back of an unused bracket had shorted against the alternator. After sitting there for a while I finally walked down to the water and fished a few hours. Then when I came back up and start trying to get the car running an old man in a beat up truck pulled over to help me. I told him what happened and he got some extension cord out of his truck and ran it from the alternator ( I think, it's been a long time) to the firewall somewhere and the car fired right up. To this day I've never known what it was he did exactly. I just new the car started. I drove that car another 3-4 years like that.

I'm betting he did exactly what you just said.