Exhaust blew out any thoughts?

[93zk]

first of all i cannot start my car without having to jump start it so maybe a battery drain? once its idleing its fine i had replaced the alternator so its not that. after about a minute of idleing it starts to shut off. well i tried to drive it back home from where i was stranded. barely pushing the gas and let it coast then more gas. well it backfired and blew out the back of my exhaust. any tips to what it might be? im stuck

[jlevie]

Just because you replaced the alternator doesn't mean that it is charging. With a fully charged battery in the car check system voltage at idle (should be ~13.5v) and at 2500rom (should be ~14v).

[93zk]

so could that be a bad ground connection for the reason its not charging? my radio doesnt work and when i put a new fuse in it keeps blowing. how does that result in my muffler blowing out?

[Hey_You]

Probably unrelated problems. There is a circuit that turns the alternator on. It runs through the gauge cluster and should have a light that illuminates. If your light is burnt out like mine was, you can replace your alternator as many times as you want and not have a working one.

[93zk]

that might explain alot. i recently replaced my cluster maybe thats my problem. it has to be something more than that though cause ive driven without a cluster in before

[Hey_You]

How fresh was your battery at that time? It may be possible that your battery isn't fresh enough to power your entire car for more than a couple minutes. A fresh battery will read 12.6 volts or so. Use a multimeter at your alternator and check the voltage being created. If it's battery voltage, you know it's in your cluster, if you are producing 13+ volts, then check your battery. Double check all of your grounds while you are at it.

[TurboJake]

No matter which was you look at it, fuel loaded up and exploded in your exhaust. Could be lack of ignition spark from the battery drain. Could be a bad ground preventing full spark. Could be 2 unrelated problems.

But no matter which you look at it, at the bare minimum:
1. raw fuel was in the exhaust and exploded.
2. you have a parasitic battery drain that needs to be addressed.

[jlevie]

Oops, looks like I forgot to address the backfire in my first post...

If the engine was running solely off the battery at some point the battery voltage will get low enough to brown out the DME. When that happens you can get backfires.

[93zk]

i have a brand new battery. so maybe its a ground connection. i know that theres one in the front left next to the headlights but i cant find the others. could a bad ground cause the alternator not to charge the battery? i replaced my spark plugs, cleaned up the distributor, adjusted the valves (i had a leaking valve cover gasket). how could the battery drain overnight? could the cluster cause a battery drain? sorry for all of these stupid questions.