Current Present When Positive and Negative Wire Disconnected From Battery

[86BigUgly]

I have a spark with the postive wire disconnected from the battery and grounding the negative to the frame of truck.

Has anyone experienced this? Is there decay from the coil?

[Lindel]

Sounds like you might have another battery tucked away somewheree. The coil won't store any voltage, and no ignition that I'm aware of will either.

If you've got a MSD capacitive discharge type that's not properly grounded, it might happen, but that would be the only thing that I'm aware of.

Do you have any options or add-ons with an internal battery? (GPS, Stereo with memory, that sort of thing?)

[gte901m]

Stupid question - the engine is not running is it?

[86BigUgly]

No other battery, stereo does not work - will look into it more with your advice.

[will e]

So that I understand. You have disconnected the positive from the terminal on the battery. It's not an optima or some other type of battery that has a second terminal on the side. When you have done this you can take a ground wire and touch it to the body and get a little spark. Does it do this more than once?

[86BigUgly]

Should have added a little more info - '86 J10, truck is not running, cables are disconnected form the battery terminal posts. The main ground cable is connected the engine block and the smaller/secondary ground wire is connected to the truck frame. When I run the battery terminal end over a bare spot on the truck frame there is a residual charge/spark.

My battery is one year old with a new alternator. I use the truck for plowing only and start it once a week to run it/drive it around. Yesterday the battery died after driving around. I am trying to eliminate whether I have a bare wire that is draining the battery or a wiring issue with the alternator. The gage in the truck shows that the alternator is delivering 14+ volts.

Does anyone know what device on truck has a capacitor or what would cause a buidup of "static" electricity?

[Greenfire]

Do you have anything plugged into the cigaret lighter? Anything that holds a charge can have a reverse current.

[86BigUgly]

Nothing plugged into cigaretter lighter.

[710 Burner]

The noise suppressor on the coil???

[GW Fisherman]

Have you connected a meter up to the cables after you have disconnected them without grounding to see what voltage you are dealing with? Sure sounds like you have another battery/potential somewhere in the system.

[j20brett]

how is the plow powered? Extra batt tucked up somewhere to power the motor??