I have a 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ, if my jeep sits for awhile it will drain the battery, when i get jumped it will start but if i take my foot off the accelerator the rpms will drop and shut off, it wont even idle you have to keep your foot into it an hold it, i think its the alternator but my dad says it could be the throttle body, anyone know which it is?

 

that's normal when you jump a dead battery in jeeps. eventually the computer will relearn and it should idle fine. may take 10 to 15 minutes at most.

as for the power drain, you will have to start pulling fuses to see what's draining. pull one at a time and reinsert before pulling the next, all while you have a volt meter hooked up to the battery.

you should see a spike in the volt meter, this should help you pin point exactly what's draining the battery.

as soon as it starts to idle, hook up the volt meter and it will tell you if the alternator is charging. should be at or around 14.4v when idling properly.

 

idk about if its a jeep thing or not but I had a mini van that did that once it was a shot alternator if you take it to any autozone they can test it.

 

What's sitting for awhile? Hours, days, months?

 

i reckon about the time it took for the last two responses is a good place to start.

 

Refer to my signature then report back. We can all sit here with our crystal ***** and take a stab in the dark at what your problem may be. You don't need help ASAP until you've actually done some diagnostic work yourself. Is the battery actually being charged by the alternator? A completely dead battery will draw a ton of juice from the alternator. You should charge the battery instead of jumping a stone cold dead one. Have you load tested the battery? How old is the battery? It may simply just need a new one, especially after being deep-cycled more than once, most off-the-shelf batteries can't endure this and won't hold a charge. This is a start. Let's hear some numbers. Feed usssss informationnnnnnnnnn

 

Auto**** is a bad word!

 

I agree but at the time i was 16 and it was all i had in my area now i use napa or Oriley lol