78 Silverado Big Ten Grounding Issues???

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Blackbooty69

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Has anybody had the problem of when you hookup the Positive battery cable the body becomes electrified and then when you hookup the Negative cable it isn't, but there is a drain on the battery?
 

RustyPile

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Has anybody had the problem of when you hookup the Positive battery cable the body becomes electrified and then when you hookup the Negative cable it isn't, but there is a drain on the battery?
That's a normal situation when the negative cable isn't connected. But there isn't a drain unless something is turned on or malfunctioning. For example, the same situation exists with the dome light circuit.. voltage is always present on both "sides" the bulb, but it doesn't come on until the ground circuit is completed. In layman's terms, if the ground is completed, voltage won't appear on the ground side.

Are you trying to figure out a problem, or are you just posing a theoretical question??
 

Blackbooty69

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A problem with battery drain. If you let the truck set a couple of weeks without starting and letting it run a while or driving it around, it will completely drain the battery so that a regular charger will not charge it. You have to do a Manuel charge. When you're leaning into the passenger side engine bay you can Feel Static electricity in the air.
 

RustyPile

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I have no explanation for the "static electricity in the air".. An alternator isn't designed to charge a battery, only to keep it fully charged.. Doing so will soon cause the alternator to fail.. Have you determined that you do actually have a drain and not just a failing/bad battery?? A battery going dead during a lengthy period of inactivity is not proof a drain exists.. My '71 truck sits for very lengthy periods, sometime as long as 3 - 4 months.. It never fails to start right up..

There are two methods to test for a drain. One: start with a charged battery and the engine not running, ignition off, and nothing turned on, doors closed. Disconnect either battery cable. Using a digital multimeter set to read MA, connect one lead to the battery and the other to the disconnected cable.. Shouldn't read more than a very few milliamps of current. If it shows more than ~ .010 milliamps, deactivate dome light door switches and start removing fuses, one at a time.. When the meter indicates a drop in the reading, the fuse pulled is the circuit that has the drain.

The other test is more lengthy. Start with a fully charged battery, either sitting on a shelf or, if installed in a vehicle, both cables must be disconnected.. It should sit for days, weeks, even months.. A good battery will not loose its charge during that time.

From your brief description, I think you have a bad battery. How old is it?? What's most baffling is you said when the vehicle isn't driven, but left sitting a couple weeks, "it will completely drain the battery so that a regular charger will not charge it. You have to do a Manuel charge." A charger is a charger, They are all designed to charge a battery. Some are automatic and as the battery voltage builds, an automatic charger will cut back on the rate. No charger will charge up a bad battery. If a battery is simply fully discharged but still good, any charger will bring it back to life if given a slow charge for a few hours.
 

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