My father in law has a 88 B250. About 6 months ago he replaced the steering column but can't remember what he did. (He's had several strokes so his memory among other things is not that great)

Now the van is a POS but is their only transportation. I've put 2 BRAND new batteries in it & it will run for a day or 2 then nothing. Not even enough juice for the radio to be on.

I tried the key trick (on, off, on, off, on in 5 seconds) and nothing happened.

He (nor I) can afford to take it to anyone. I have enough mechanical ability to fix it if I can get some direction (I've done all the work on my Jeep, but I KNOW Jeeps. I don't know Dodge Vans)

I know its difficult not knowing what he did with the steering column, but if anyone can point me in ANY direction other than down that would be great. He is not in the greatest health & needs to be able to have a vehicle to get to & from his weekly doctor appts. Thanks!!

 

There is no guarantee that anything done to the steering column is

A: causing something to drain the battery
or
B: causing the charging system not to function properly

or possibly both.

1st, fully recharge the battery and take a reading on the battery, should be 12.6+

Start the engine. voltage should be at least 13.6 and under 14.6

If the battery voltage with the engine running is under 12.6 then you must test the voltage on the back of the alternator itself on the 2 larger terminals.

If this is the same as the reading taken at the battery then either the alternator is faulty, or the voltage regulator withing the engine computer is not working, or the field wires leading to and from the alternator from engine computer are faulty.

If the voltage at the alternator is above the battery voltage, then you must carefully pull out all the wires from behind the brake booster.

There will be a bunch of fusible links back there. A fusible link is a length of wire with a different type of insulation. It will be softer and more flexible, and I believe it will be black. It should stretch out when they blow but mine and many other fusible link failures I've read about do not appear blown at a glance.

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/electrical-links.html

When You remove or return a battery cable to the battery post with the keys removed from the ignition and dome lights off, is there a large spark? This indicates something is drawing a fair amount of power from the battery.

You can either remove fuses one at a time and look for that spark( not recommended), or set up your digital multimeter to DC amps, and connect the leads inline and it will read the constant amperage draw on the battery as you pull fuses to determine which circuit is the phantom draw on the battery. ++Do not do the spark test on a battery just taken off the charger as there is hydrogen still in the cells++ boom. take precautions.

If you do not have a digital Multimeter, you can get a fairly accurate one for 3 to 7 dollars at harbor freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/7-funct...ter-92020.html

AP stores or even home box stores have them for about 20to 35$+

Pretty vital tool to troubleshooting the issue.