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Old 01-16-2005, 11:09 PM   #17
Orange whip 04
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Saline, Michigan
Posts: 3,187
Re: Mach won't start

For quite a few years i was a Ford technician around some of the metro Ford dealerships. It seem liked all i did was replace batterys that wouldnt hold a charge or was making alot of repairs to electrical systems that had draws in them. For some strange reason i kept seeing more problems with higher rated cold cranking amp batterys. I really dont know what the problem is with Ford motorcraft and there batterys. I know there are some onboard electronics that have keep alive memory but that shouldnt draw a system down enough to drain the battery. But the cold weather sure does play havok on them. As some one else suggested ... you can disconect the cable and let it sit between periods to help the battery out. Or you can remove it and store it in a dry heated area if your not going to be using the mach for some time. Just for the sake of argument, if you end up having another problem with battery drainage after that new battery you put in. I would suggest that maybe there is another problem like a battery draw. You can check this by yourself if you are a little electronic savy. First of all, make sure you check your batterys state of charge. Once that has been determined all you will need is a test light. You can disconect the battery positive terminal and clip the test llight lead to the end of the lose positive terminal and touch the pin point end of the test light to the top of the battery positive post. If there is no light that is a good sign. that means that there is no draw in the system. However, you might see a very very faint ray of light with in the test light. This might indicate either a small draw or possibly some onboard keep alive memory feature that is emiting through the test light or perhaps the timed light has not turned off yet. Now you have to figure out what part of that light is normal. If the test light is glowing brightly then chances are you probably have a bad draw in the system. Also consider disconecting the under the hood light bulb as i have seen those create draws and will undoubtably emit bright light from your test light when you make those connections. Also check to make sure all your doors are closed firmly. Some darw problems come from the door jams switches themselves. One additional note. The under the hood light switch containes mercury and acts as a leveling switch. It knows when to turn off or on in relationship to the hoods level. Some times what happen is that little bit of mercury gets stuck and causes the switch to stick in the on position which will in turn cause the light to burn brightly while the hood is shut. This would cause and eventual draw of the battery. I would recomend you remove the peanut bulb during these winter months just as a safety percausion for your battery so it wont drain in the event that happens. Hope that helps ya.... I know, this was bit long lol.
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