Battery Drain

I took the day off today to get most of the things done to the car that I've already spoken about. All of the parts didn't come in sooo...doing what we could, we tuned the carb., installed the new power steering hose, took care of a little rust issue, and tried half of the afternoon to track down what was draining the battery. On a '64 there just isn't that much that it could be but we were stumped. We checked everything three times except.....the cigarette lighter! Can you believe it. Even without being pushed completely in it was making contact. As soon as we removed the lighter plug up went the meter. I never would have thought that thing would drain enough power to cause all of these problems. It's been doing fine all afternoon now.

We took the car for a "test" drive. Man oh man that thing will run! Luckily the interstate had a few breaks in traffic and I was able to do more than I was comfortable with considering I don't have the seatbelts installed yet. It will outrun our 2010 Dodge Type 1 with no problems and I still had a lot of pedal left. Come on seat belts we're waiting on you!

That's the good news for the day. I'll post the irritating bad news another time. Today I'm going to end on a positive note and just be glad we got somethings accomplished and drove really, really fast. :drive2:
 
seat belts make it go faster?? you people that have them crammed down your throat. 50/50 your shot of dieing at high speed on or off. on is easier to find the body. now 40 or less your chance of receiving a bad injury is far less with it on, but once you up to speed all it will do is keep you behind the wheel if you get in trouble. that way you can see the wreck from were you belong. if that car is running right it will do in excess of 140. I have heard of drivers getting chewed out for passing the trooper on way to the wreck.
 
if that car is running right it will do in excess of 140. I have heard of drivers getting chewed out for passing the trooper on way to the wreck.

How true, my friend! There was one trooper in particular that we didn't pass because he would raise all kinds of hell with the owner of the funeral home. This was in the late '70s; he couldn't handle the job today because his ego wouldn't fit in a Charger, Impala, or Crown Vic.

We had a '72 Consort combination that was like driving a dragster; anyone in the front seat should've been wearing "H" straps and a helmet. We almost had to file a flight plan before we took it on an emergency call! She slowed down a little bit, though, when we replaced the #174-D with a (demountable) Twinsonic light bar.

Our '71 Mercury hightop, even with only a 400, would "float" while making a long, high-speed run (pre-chopper days) on the turnpike. It would embarrass even the muscle car drivers!

The OHP used Lemans and Catalina police specials in the late 1970s. Our '72 Olds hightop, as heavy as it was, could overtake and pass them almost before the trooper saw our lights; usually, they eased over toward the shoulder and let us by. It had lots of pedal left at 90mph! The 440s in the '72 Dodges and '73 Plymouths? Now that was another story. We could stay on their bumpers like Pac-Man, but couldn't pass 'em...
 
Man mine must have been really rough haha I don't feel like I have much of any power with the 8,000 lbs car and a 472 but then again I ride a sport bike as my DD so I don't know.
 
I took the day off today to get most of the things done to the car that I've already spoken about. All of the parts didn't come in sooo...doing what we could, we tuned the carb., installed the new power steering hose, took care of a little rust issue, and tried half of the afternoon to track down what was draining the battery. On a '64 there just isn't that much that it could be but we were stumped. We checked everything three times except.....the cigarette lighter! Can you believe it. Even without being pushed completely in it was making contact. As soon as we removed the lighter plug up went the meter. I never would have thought that thing would drain enough power to cause all of these problems. It's been doing fine all afternoon now.

We took the car for a "test" drive. Man oh man that thing will run! Luckily the interstate had a few breaks in traffic and I was able to do more than I was comfortable with considering I don't have the seatbelts installed yet. It will outrun our 2010 Dodge Type 1 with no problems and I still had a lot of pedal left. Come on seat belts we're waiting on you!

That's the good news for the day. I'll post the irritating bad news another time. Today I'm going to end on a positive note and just be glad we got somethings accomplished and drove really, really fast. :drive2:

So, what made you think of the lighter plug? I never would have thought about that in a hunderd years, but now it will be the first think I check!:thankyou2:
 
It was the last thing left to check. Of course that only happened while I was sitting in the driver's seat staring at the dashboard and scratching my head. :pat:
 
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