From: Patrick Jankowiak (recycler@swbell.net)
Date: Fri Dec 24 2004 - 21:03:42 PST
There is a small capacitor in the electrical system, which gets
charged when the battery is connected. Once charged, it stays so
and does not consume power. You see the spark because after some
time, it is slowly discharged by the natural amount of leakage
present in the electrical system. The normal leakage is too small
to be concerned with.
When a discharged capacitor is presented with a voltage, it
appears to be a short circuit for a brief time (in this case very
brief) and thence the spark. All is most likely well.
Patrick
Squirt_Truck wrote:
> First, does the truck have and alternator or a
> generator?
> If a generator, look for something left on or a bad
> voltage regulator.
> If an alternator, some leakage, enough to spark is
> normal, it is passing through the diodes in the
> recitifier (spelling....).
> Easy to check the leakage is to use a small test
> light, connect it between the ground cable and the
> negative batttery post. A faint glow is acceptable, if
> the lamp is bright you have a bad diode.
>
> My truck does the same thing and will sit for months
> without killing the batteries and I have not upgraded
> to a solargizer or such as yet.
>
> Hope this helps,
> Squirt_Truck
>
>
>
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--Best regards,
Patrick
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