losing electricity

[alfa331.7]

heya guys

got an issue with my wiring and at the moment

i have to charge my battery atleast once a week because everytime i take the car out when i get back dead battery :l
alternator been reconditioned and tested and thats fine ,battery is new hmmm

i was thinking maybe a leaking wire from stereo?? but could that drain the whole battery??

[alfa331.7]

my cd players makes a buzz sound when the car is driving or even when it is off and im sitting in it

[colcol]

Cut the Alfa Romeo battery terminals off the leads going onto the battery, they are undersize, and don't connect well, when you cut them off, you will notice corrosion on the end of the lead, where it goes into the battery terminal, go to Repco and get some new battery terminals, that are the right size, as they all vary, make sure the exit and direction is right for your battery and setup, sometimes the + positive and - negative terminals are different sizes, to prevent wrong connections, get plated brass terminals if possible, now, because some parts manufacturers still think its 1930, the bolts and nuts on the terminals, will most likely be Whitworth or U.N.C., so turf them and put in metric nuts and bolts, so you don't have to use imperial spanners on your 33, my 33 had the same problem as yours for 20 years, until i did this....., only last year, couldn't beleive how corroded the connector to battery leads were, when cranking over the terminals would get so hot they would smoke, a sure sign of a bad connection, and  disconnect the C.D. player, by removing the fuse, and see if things improve, Colin.

[alfa331.7]

hello colin

yeh it is really annoying getting over it hah
i think ill try the fuse for now and hopefully that will solve it if not battery terminals it is ill be doing that anyways

which fuse would be for the radio would you know because i think i have about 8 or 9 fuses

[colcol]

The fuse that you would remove is the one marked 'radio', [ho ho ho], various radio installer pickup the power from different places, just turn the ignition on, and radio on and just keep removing fuses one by one and see when your radio stops, but if its a coded radio, make sure you have the code, and when you remove the right fuse, make sure vital parts of the car are still working, such as lights and wipers!, Colin.

[alfa331.7]

morning colin

i took the radio fuse out but still drains my battery
alternator just been rebuit
battery been testd and good

the battery light even stayys on when im driving so not sure :l also speedo dosent work i got it fixed a yr ago now it dont work??

[colcol]

You took out the radio fuse and you have no radio?, that is good, no power getting to radio, do you have an amp?, if so remove the power going to that, there should be a L.E.D. on the amp to indicate power, if not, just put 12 volt test light on + battery connection on amp, and remove fuses one by one until you have no power at the amp.
Battery light stays on during driving, means that battery is being drained and not charged, if you have a loose wire or break in the instrument assembly, then the alternator won't charge.
Speedo won't work, [welcome to 33 ownership], if it not working along with radio, put fuse back in for radio, and see if speedo works again, if yes, radio needs to pick up power from another source, somewhere closer to battery, i had the same problem with my radio, kept cutting out at low volts, ie pulling up at traffic lights with headlights on, the drop in volts coming out of dashboard was too much for radio, picked up volts from a more direct source, and it fixed the radio drop out problem, Colin.

[alfa331.7]

speedo worked once a yr ago then i think a circuit broke?? and got it fixed then it works on and off once i sitting in the car waitig to turn left turned my indicator on and apparently i was doing 220kms standing still haha very funny what usually blows in the alfa speedos?

ill have to check my wiring aswell tomorow after
i did do a test with the multimeter on the positive lead battery to starter lead? itwas ranging from 12.35 to 11.20 and back up and down ?

ill have to get a electrician i think to sort it all out

apart from that i have my back brakes getting serviced new rear bads from a friend of mine ... and when rob panetta from manning motors in brookvale get back from his bathurst adventure  ill be getting the carbs sorted out

aswell as a full respray from my father whos a spray painter got a little bit of rust to get sorted ( thinking audi white )

it will get there hopefully soon

[colcol]

If yours is a series 2, 1987 unleaded onwards, then it has an improved speedo setup, usually it is the connection into the instrument assembly, some auto electricians hard wire the speedos, so that it bypasses the push on connector, or supplements it, also the speedo sensor in the gearbox can fail, check the red wire and white wire, there should be about 4 ohms, if nothing, then its most likely the gearbox sender, get a second hand one from a wrecker and check it has the right amount of ohms, the last new one i purchased about 15 years ago was about $120!.
The battery leads are are bit undersize, if i was serious, i would go to Repco, and get a replacement, but putting new terminals helped mine a great deal, if you have different volts at the battery to the starter motor, then you have a bad connection at the battery terminal and or at the starter motor, the good news is that the starter motors are easy to get at in 33's, they sit on top of the engine.
You mean new shoes on the back, as the 33 had drums, the series 3, 33's had discs, in 290,000 kls i have replaced the shoes on the back of my 33 once, the slave cylinders usually leak before the shoes wear out as the front does about 90% of the bracking, and the 33 has a great handbrake, unlike some other Alfa Romeo's i can name!, Colin.

[alfa331.7]

hey colin

yes i have a s2 1988 with twin carbs
it used to be injected untill my mate i brought it off converted it with carbs , that meant that he chopped up the harness instead of buying one for carb version so when i did the engine rebuild i found it hard connecting the harness it took me a week but i did it with about 3 wires left over :l

ill give repco a go with new terminals and see how i go there would you know the size of them id have to get? ...i have not reconditioned my starter motor but i might get it tested to see what it is putting out could this be a possible reason? im bad with electric side of cars sorry

ill try testing the  speedo cable to gearbox  ?? mine is grey not red nor white

after my sunday drive ill be rechecking all earth connections

regards alfio

[colcol]

When you go to Repco, before you buy them, just check that they fit ok, usually the + positive and - negative terminals are different sizes so you can't connect them up wrong, but some battery's terminals are the same.
Give all the connectors on the starter motor a good clean, and see AFTER you put new battery terminals in, see if you get a voltage drop.
Your speedo to gearbox wire is gray, on the outside, but there are 3 wires on the inside, earth, red and white, put a multimeter on the gearbox side wire and check the resistance of the white and red wire, it should be about  4 ohms, if nothing, then the sensor is faulty, it is a Jaegar part made in France, can't blame Italian electrics for this one!, there is a plug for the gearbox wire around the brake master cylinder, it is a 3 pin, seperate the plug here for doing your resistance test, and give the plug pins a good clean, Colin.

[33racer]

I would suggest getting a multimeter and checking to make sure the battery is charging when running. because maybe the alternator is not connected properly or on of the cables is broken.

[colcol]

If the alternator wasn't charging properly the charge light will come on, should be on when ignition is on, but engine not running, charge light should glow slightly, when pulled up at traffic lights with headlights on, when battery is being drained, power travels from battery to electrical system, through the charge light, causing it to glow, also check the length of the brushes in the alternator, if they are on the short side, then they won't contact good or charge properly, because i live in the past a lot, when my 33 needed new alternator brushes, at great expense, i went and bought new brushes and soldered them in, later on i found out that it would have been cheaper to buy a whole new voltage regulator with new brushes, ah, we live and learn, Colin.

[alfa331.7]

hi colin took the 33 out tonight
and had my headlights on as soon as my headlights was on speedo started working but it kept shpwing i was doing 200 when i was doing 80 :l weird

[colcol]

Check all your speedo connections, it seems to be making contact, otherwise it wouldn't work, i had a similar problem with mine, switch the headlights on, and the speedo dropped 10 kays, there is a 'pot' on the back of the speedo, that allows you to trim up the speedo, turn one way and the speedo goes up, turn the opposite and the speedo goes down, i think its for setting up when the speedo is made, and it can get it to read within manufactuers tolerances, after hours of stuffing around, my speedo reads within about 1%, indicated 99 kph, actual 100 kph, according to my GPS, this will work until next week, then it will start playing up again!, the series 1 33's were shocking for this, the series 2+3 were much more reliable, Colin.