two wires coming out of the harness by the ignition coil.

[GreenScoutII]

I was looking under the hood of the 77 Scout 304 trying to figure out why its eating batteries. Then I found two wires coming out of the loom by the coil that are cut off. One is yellow and one is black. What did these go to? Any help? Im going to start replacing cable and checking grounds from the battery on. Now I find these two wires that were just cut from something and not sure what. The Scout II was owned by my father inlaw that has passed away. Not sure if he ever had any thing done to this before. It has 48000 on the clicker, and I was under the assumption that it has never had any mods done to it. I guess I could be wrong?

 

[Scoutboy74]

Does this still have the Holley gold box electronic ignition, or has it been upgraded to something else? I'm going to hazard a guess that its been upgraded. That would explain the clipped wires. Going over your grounds is never a bad idea. Do you have a 12v incandescent test probe? You can use one to help test for the presence of a parasitic drain. What you do is disconnect the negative cable from the battery. Connect the alligator clip of the test probe to the loose battery cable and probe the negative terminal. Ensure that all accessories are shut off and the doors are closed. If the light comes on and stays on when you probe, that means you have a drain. Now go to the fuse block and remove one fuse and redo the probe test. If the light stays dark, you just isolated the problem circuit. If the light comes on, replace the fuse, remove another and redo the probe test. Keep going in this manner until you find the fuse that when removed keeps the light out. Trace the wire(s) associated with the suspect circuit until you find the compromised junction or insulation and repair as necessary.

 

[GreenScoutII]

It has a gold box on the bulkhead not sure if its a holly. I tried the prob test for a parasitic drain. It was fine no light. Is there a different gold box that replaces the holly? The clipped wires do make me wonder what was upgraded at some point. Thanks for the input. Trev

 

[Scoutboy74]

The distributor is a Holley and the gold box is a signal amplifier that is usually gold in color, but can also be silver or even black. It might be helpful to have some under hood pics. So your battery issue...can you elaborate more on that?

 

[GreenScoutII]

First of all... The Scout is about sixty miles from where I live so its hard to get time to work on it. This weekend I was moving it out of my mother in laws garage to take a look at it and the battery is toast. I jumped it and it ran for about twenty minutes idling. So I decided to drive it down the street and it made it about a block and died. I'm beginning to think this is a dirty fuel line and filter from bad gas. I jumped it and drove back to the house and parked it in the street for about 4 hours. Had to jump it again to put it back in the garage and it wouldn't jump. So I threw the new battery in it that I don't want to ruin... To start it and it still wouldn't turn over. I tried it a few times and then it turned over and acted like it was flooded. I got it to start and put in in the garage and pulled the battery to save it. At this point I'm suspecting bad ground somewhere but not sure. Have to wait until this weekend to play with it some more. I will try to post some pics of the two wires I found. I do think it has the original gold box by the looks of it. This monster likes to eat a new battery in a matter of hours just sitting. I will take more pics of the motor and bulkhead when I get the chance. Thanks

 

[GreenScoutII]

Here are a couple of pics of the wires

 

[Scoutboy74]

You might be getting ahead of yourself in saying something in this Scout is killing batteries. Twenty minutes of idling is hardly sufficient time to replenish a severely discharged battery. Its also pretty hard on your alternator to have it bring a battery back from the dead. That's what battery chargers are for. That old battery May indeed prove itself to be toast, but you should first try placing it on a trickle charger overnight to see if it will take and hold a full charge.

The second instance of no starter crank with the different battery sounds more to me like a poor connection somewhere between the battery and the starter solenoid preventing proper current flow. That could have also been a contributing factor with the previous battery as well. Trying to burn stale fuel is just asking for trouble. If its age can be measured in year(s) rather than month(s) you'd be better off purging it from the fuel system. If old fuel was allowed to sit and ferment inside the carb, you can just about bet that all the tiny passages and orifices inside the carb are gummed up.

Thanks for the pics, but they are a bit too small for me to really make anything out.

 

[GreenScoutII]

Sorry about the pics. I did have the battery on a trickle overnight. That is why I bought a new one. Its done. Ill try the connections and cables next time. Thanks

 

[Bitterwinds]

I had a similar situation in a different vehicle and it turned out to be the fields grounding on the starter when it was sitting in the right position when shut off sometimes not a problem but other times it would drain a batterry in a flash. Just a thougt I know it drove me nuts until I pulled it and had it tested on a wim
jim

 

[GreenScoutII]

Could it be the fusable link? Is there one? And where is it? I think I May have found it but I can't get it unpluged. Its under the bulkhead wires, white in color and goes into the bulkhead just next to the goldbox.

 

[Scoutboy74]

Any fusible link is go or no go for the circuit(s) it protects. They don't behave intermittently. If it popped, you'd have no power in the cab for anything and that would be a permanent situation until you replaced the link.