[Trackrash]

Originally Posted by bpu699

If the original poster is accurate, and he put the voltmeter on the battery posts and it read 10v, then the battery is bad. There is nothing else that can cause that, assuming you have the voltmeter on the + and - posts of the battery...

Disconnect the battery from all its connections. Measure voltage. Should be >12.8 at rest...

Or, just take it to Sears or Autozone and get it checked under load...

At 10v, it will flip the car over, and start it. Barely.

A short can cause low voltage. But if you have a healthy battery, pushing 850 CCA through a short with enough fury to drop it to 10volts... you probably have sparks and smoke flying .

Now, if the PO is testing the battery voltage differently, that's different...

You are probably right. However I had a situation once where there was a poor connection in the battery cable (a kill switch to be exact). It ohmed out ok. But when you put a load on it there was a problem.

I agree the battery should be checked first. But if there is almost 14v at the lighter and 10v at the battery, it makes me think bad connection.