Un-enlightened

[Mike914six]

I need Un-enlightened so to speak…When I went to start the 911 to come to work this morning…nothing, the battery was totally dead.

I drove it to work last Friday, and put it on one of those little Schumacher chargers like I always do. After it failed to start, I noticed that the interior light was out, no juice what so ever. Thinking the Schumacher failed and drained the battery, I went to hook up a larger charger, and as soon as contact was made, the headlights pop on! Pounding myself on the head I open the door to shut them off, only to find them already off. The parking/running lights are not on, just the headlights.

I needed to get to work, so I disconnected the battery and left it on the charger, and drove the 914-6 (always reliable). At sometime over the weekend the headlights must have came on and the charger could not keep up.

So, what do you guys think might be the problem? I think it might be the high beam flasher switch is messing up and is permanently ‘flashing’ the high beams.

Has anybody else had this problem?

[john70t]

You can check for parasitic drain (i.e. short) with the key off by disconnecting the negative cable and putting an amp-meter in line between them. Anything over a tenth of a volt (radio, alarm..) could cause problems.
Even brand new lead-acid batteries can be killed by completely draining them.
I've thought of hooking my lights up to the ignition circuit but haven't because of time and dread of overloading circuit (calculate draw with wire size, correct fuse etc..).

After slow charging, you should get over 9.6v(10v better) while cranking engine, over 12.4 off, and over 13.5 running.