Battery draining /New battery, new alternator

[newfranger]

The problem I'm having is as follows:

I had a bad inertia switch, I never bothered to get a new one.
What I decided to do was, cut the plug connector off (& run the two wires together) Pulled over the key......perfect!!! But noticed every time I'd pull over the key the battery was getting weaker & weaker. I picked up a three prong switch at crappy tire & decide to wire it up to the two wires. The three prongs read: ground-acc-power SO I hooked 1 up to acc & one to power. Turned the key & won't start....figured I forgot to turn the switch......turned it.....pulled over perfect!! So I kept the truck going but the battery got weaker & weaker. So I'm, wondering what I hooked up wrong? Anybody have any suggestions?
TKS

 

[Rico]

Corrosion on your connections can be your worst enemy. If thet're not shiney and silver try cleaning them.

 

[IRKillroy]

um, bad wires too... if the corrosion is in the insulation that'll do it as well.

now, I don't understand why you decided to jump the inertia switch... it's engineered into your vehicle because it's dangerous for an electric pump to spew fuel all over the place if you get in an accident.... things blow up that way.

anyways, did it have a drain problem before you decided to play electrical engineer and chop out your inertia switch?

 

[holyford86]

have you checked the voltage output of your alternator while running? Was the battery that you installed junk right out of the box? Get the battery load tested. having a switch in the off position where the inertia switch was isn't going to do crap because the wire doesn't have power when the truck is off anyway. Are you leaving accessories on? are the door jam switches stuck on? See what you are drawing for amperage at the battery with the truck off by pulling the positive cable to the battery and using a voltmeter to see what the draw is, it shouldn't be much at all, much less than 1 amp. if the draw is negligible then the problem lies in the charging circut, if there is a good amount of draw (greater than 1 amp) then you have a short to find.

 

[Ranger44]

Yes, do yourself a big favor....,especially if you don't have or don't know how to use a DMM, and take the battery and alternator down to an O'reilly's or autozone, etc and have them tested for free.

The problem could also be like others have said, an alternator to battery cable with high resistance, or bad connections(which would also cause high resistance).

What it really sound like is that there is a parasitic draw on the battery or the battery cannot take a load.

BTW, go to a junkyard and get an inertia switch to put on your truck......