Chevrolet Repair: Battery will not hold charge, jumper cable, screw driver

Question
Hey Mark, my friend has a 84 Chevy Truck, He has replaced the battery twice with a new one and a alternator, the alternator has also been tested to see if it is good, it was and we put a screw driver on the back of it to see if it was charging, but for some reason when you turn the truck off after it has been running 20 minutes or so, it will not crank back up, acting as if the battery has no charge, we have a red wire going from postive to back of altenator, we have another wire from the positive to the MSD ignition, and on the negative terminal we have it going to the top of the altenator bracket, and the other wire that is on the negative post going to the MSD ignition, now my question is, do we need to put a little wire on the negative post to the metal body of the truck somewhere? could that be his problem he has been having the whole time? we hooked up a jumper cable to the negative post and clamped the other end to the metal on the truck, and we let the truck maybe almost 5 minutes after jumping it, and it still did not hold a charge.

Answer
Hi John, I'm not sure what you have going on with the MSD. If you have a positive wire from the battery going to the MSD, won't the MSD be live and draw the battery down. I'm thinking this wire should be switch on and off with the ignition switch. Do this, charge the battery and disconnect the MSD to see if the battery still goes dead. Yes you need a wire going to the frame and body from the battery, along with the one that goes to the engine.

sorry I can't be more help

Have a Nice Day              Mark