Well one thing is for sure: if the alternator, regulator and rectifier are OK, then there MUST be something that is drawing power. There has to be, otherwise your battery wouldn't drain. DUH
Disconnect one battery clamp, and hook up an ampere meter. If there is a current flow of more than a few hundred milliamperes tops, something is off. Remember to disconnect the light under your hood when you are doing this though

I don't have a Navigator, so I don't know what size battery it has... but I bet it is more than 7Ah... You could probably run your seats all day long on that battery... and then some. The amount of power required to run some electrical gadget(s) is negligable compared to the power you need to crank that 5.4 liter engine. Your battery isn't going to choke on that.

I would not even dream of digging into that car... I don't even want to know how many miles of wire there are in it.
If the folks at Lincoln can't find it, with the complete wiring diagrams at hand... I'm sure I could figure it out if you gave me the car for a month or two though... [>:]

I wouldn't waste time with rudeboy his name spells it out for me.

William you have proven me to be wrong , I had the meter set on volts instead of ohms. Across the glow plug only, I am reading .5 which in the real world is a dead short. The other readings was DC voltage across my body which is .200m, thats why one is told to ground themself before handling PC boards.

And Rudeboy , my power seats worked with the car off, along with my cig lighter,dome lights ,etc..

Sorry for the confusion. [&o]

[I'm sure I could figure it out if you gave me the car for a month or two though... ]

Ain't my problem no mo. I 'spect I could have found it too, given enough time and equipment, but I didn't see that as my job, dontcha know.

jess

0.5 Ohm is not a "dead short"... not in my world, and not in yours.

You take a freshly charged 2400 mAh nicad cell and hold a piece of nice thick copper wire aross the poles (use some really heavy wire for it to work best)... see what happens with a "dead short"... (you might want to consider some gloves though)
After holding on the wire for about 1 minute, tell me what happens to the wire, and the cell.
Now take an identical cell and hook it up to a glow plug... see how long it lasts.

After that, you decide what a "dead short" is.

Jessie, your first mistake was buying a Ford Motor Company product. LOL *kidding*

Rs_Fiend, you're making generalizations. The power windows in my '84 Mercedes 500SEL open and close no problem when the car is off and key not in the ignition, same goes for the sunroof and power seats....while the key must be in the ignition and in the on position for the same to happen in my fiancee's Lexus RX300. BUT in both cars all power bypasses all accessories during cranking of the engine. Cold crank has nothing to do with the number of accessories your car has. It's merely the number of amps a cold battery can provide and for what lenght of time. My cousin has a '69 Chevelle with an insane 502 c.i.d. big block and NO power accessories whatsoever. Yet he needs a monster battery to crank the beast over. While I admit that an air conditioner and power steering pump and things such as these do require some extra energy merely because of the friction of the belts that drive them, a large battery (not necessarily physically large but large in terms of the amperage provided) is primarily required to turn over a large engine.

Rudeboy, I agree...if alternator, rectifier and regulator are OK then there must be some sort of short draining the battery!

FIEND:

No intention of proving anyone "Right" or "Wrong." Just thought you might not realize the limitations of the average DVM.

Bill.

PS: A 200W light bulb for house current is about 0.5 ohm. If it were a dead short it would blow the breaker and not light up your yard. wr.

[Jessie, your first mistake was buying a Ford Motor Company product. LOL *kidding* ]

No prob. Got most all the mistakes covered. I gotcha Ford, I gotcha GM, I gotcha Chrysler , I gotcha Nissan I gotcha ...uh how about out of business UK cars?(which I love) and motorcycle Mfrs?? I have made first mistakes with more companies than I can remember- still have some of them. (sigh) and doubtless will keep some of the *&^@# things.

[My cousin has a '69 Chevelle with an insane 502 c.i.d. big block and NO power accessories whatsoever. ]

Hey, the only thing insane about CIs is not having enough of them. Your cousin's Chevy is geting just about right.

jess

Jessie, UK manufacturers? Are you referring to Lucas, the "Prince of Darkness"? heh heh heh Having owned an MG and a Triumph (the car not the bike) I think their biggest downfall is the electrical sustem. Forget if it's positive ground or negative ground. Speaking of Brit bikes I'd love to own a Brough Superior but I'd settle for a BSA or a Triton cafe bike.

In regards to the Chevelle and other pushrod dinisaurs, there's nothing wrong with cubes and more power is always more fun and these monsters are FUN! but I gotta admit that working through the gears and throwing a little 4 cylinder car around the curves is pretty fun too. I once test drove a Beck Spyder (Porsche 550 replica) and weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! was it ever fun. Much 'funner' than my little (i.e. relatively heavy) MGB.

Jessie, oops, again we're getting off topic...*wink*

I am currently drawing up the next next myth buster. Look for the thread on your local RCU

RC_Fiend, LOL Me too....I'm making glow fuel out of sour milk. Stay tuned for a flight report. heh heh

funny FUUUUUUUUNNNNNNyyyyyyy

Why bother? You didn't prove anything (worthwhile) with your other thread. If you decide to throw caution to the wind and cook up some other harebrained theory, maybe you should name the thread "THE NEXT TROLL"... (don't forget to use all caps - it adds that extra level of credibility). Oh, on second thought, spare us the agony.

-Joe

It will be easier for you to NOT READ THE F'IN THREAD , now beat you bother me.

Jessie seems determined to try to impress us with his Lincoln Navigator and Datsun 350Z. I'm not surprised that he's having trouble with the FOMOCO stuff, but the Datsun should be fairly reliable. Finally, no one should interpret his sarcasm as lightheartedness about the matter. I sense a very frustrated and generally angry person who thinks he's right and everyone else is wrong.

Try to lighten up Jessie and start treating people with more respect. You'll live longer.

Ciao,

Eagle Al

The only thing Lucas made that didn't suck, was a vacuum cleaner.

[Jessie, UK manufacturers? Are you referring to Lucas, the "Prince of Darkness"? heh heh heh Having owned an MG and a Triumph (the car not the bike) I think their biggest downfall is the electrical sustem. Forget if it's positive ground or negative ground.]

Its negative ground. I have owned both Triumph bikes and cars. I now have a 1964 TR-4 that I have had for some years. It is much like the almost new TR-4a that I scattered over most of a Georgia county 10 days before I left for Nam.

Yes, most of the older Brit stuff had the 3 position Lucas switch: off, flicker, and dim.

jess

Jess:

All the British cars with DC generators were positive ground. Both cars and motorbikes. They didn't go to negative ground until the DC generators were replaced with AC generators, "Alternators" if you prefer the term.

And in fact, the Lucas electrics were really quite good except for one small part of their production: Lucas never made a switch that was worth a #$%.

My last Limey was a Jensen-Healy, that I tried not to drive at night. It was not in the least uncommon to be going down the road at night and have the lights turn off all by themselves. I kept a jumper wire handy to bypass the lighting switch, but I had to crawl under the dash to attach it.

By the way - a lot of the British motorbikes didn't use Lucas - they had instead BTH magnetos and Miller electrics.

Bill.

William, oh shut up already! *just joking* Is there a subject you don't know about? heh heh heh Maybe this: Should I use stainless needles when I knit my sweaters or regular needles?

One last word on British cars. I forget where it came from but it goes something like this: Everything that falls off of a British car is of the highest order of British workmanship!

My TR-4 is negative ground.

I don't recall the type of electrics it had, but I do vividly recall traveling around 75 or so mph on a dark night aboard a new 1965 (I think) BSA Lightning when the lights suddenly went out. I found the experience quite exciting for a few moments. In fact I believe I was wearing my goggles like contact lenses.

As a youngster I also had a little BSA Bantam with a headlight powered by the magneto. At night it could be dangerous to slow down as the light diminished in proportion to the RPM.

I expect that had I known then what I know now, nothing would have been as much fun.

jess

[One last word on British cars. I forget where it came from but it goes something like this: Everything that falls off of a British car is of the highest order of British workmanship! ]


I think an entire cottage industry has grown up around bumper stickers with statements like that, "Lucas, Prince of Darkness", and the like.

jess

Jesse:

Or:

Q: Why do the British drink warm beer?

A: They have Lucas refrigerators.

Bill.

Anyone who has not lived thru the dark (Lucas) years of british automobiles just hasn't had a complete life.

In my case nearly a short one.

jess

Bill,
Last time I was in England, I was chatting with a couple Brits about their old cars and Lucas wiring came up. Even the Brits reffered to Lucas as: "The Prince of Darkness"