Dinnercoat

Hey all, so I was having issues starting up about a week ago. It seems that over time the car was taking longer and longer to start up until it just stopped. Sometimes it would click, and sometimes it would bog down the entire system like lights would dim and it'd go "OOOOoooooo....." So I dropped the battery from my curbed FB in there and it fired up right away so went and bought a new battery (the one from the FB had side posts and wouldn't fit in the FCs little plastic battery well). So far things are good but it looks like slowly its showing less voltage when I set the key to "On" but shows a stead 14v or so when driving around, and it also seems to be slowly taking a little more time to start each time. As I just got a new battery, could this be a sign that my alternator is going out on me?

Also when I switched in the other battery I cleaned the battery connectors on the cables but I think I took a little too much lead off cos the ground plug now won't sit tightly on the battery post. It holds there for the most part but its easy to spin it around and just lift it off, can that cause me to lose charge in my battery when the car is off?

Thanks for any info that can be given.

Dinnercoat

Oh and I also unplugged the stock security system as it was malfunctioning ( the Security light would always blink, no matter )

Can having that harness unplug affect the electrical system at all?

88rx7gxl

Go buy a new end for your battery terminal or you can get a lead spacer for the battery terminal. It makes the battery terminal bigger so you can fit the battery wire on tighter.

Having a loose ground terminal wont drain the battery. But it will make it harder for the alternator to charge the battery.

Dinnercoat

Where can I get the spacer from? Autozone/Kragen/NAPA and Wal-Mart? Just normal run of the mill places like that?

88rx7gxl

Yeah, any parts store will have them. They slip right over the post on the battery and make the post larger.

Dinnercoat

Awesome thanks, I'll go check out Autozone for them tomorrow.

But on my old battery the ground connector was just fine so do you think having that battery go dead on me, along with it taking a little longer to start up each time could mean that the alt is going out?

I just hope that it is cos I'm waiting to get the FD alternator from silverrotor and put that in. Figure I'll need it for when I put in a new sound system.

floppyhat69

What did you clean the battery post with?

88rx7gxl

Well, drive your RX7 to autozone when you go to get the battery post thing. They can test your alternator ON your car for free.

Dinnercoat

Wire brush.

floppyhat69

A wire brush wouldn't remove too much material. So the size of the terminal shouldn't be your problem unless it was too small to start with