I was out tonight and some guy cut me off and I had to hit the brakes hard and when I came to a stop the car died and the battery totally drained. Anyone have this happen and know why?? I don't want to take it out again until I can figure it out. About 5 cars came to help me which was nice and we finally got it boosted with a police interceptor car HAHA. I drove it home and the the battery charged and has held for 2 hours. I have no clue why it would do this.

 

Did it turn over at all or click like a dead battery?

 

Sounds like a poor connection at the terminal. To me anyways. Or a loose main ground

 

What Trent said. And possibly a bad alternator or voltage regulator could be in the mix here. And in that car, you would also want to check the firewall connection. We had a '65 Thunderbird Special Landau do this, got it all the way to San Antonio (I was driving it... it was... fun... we were in a Tbird group goin' there, so there was plenty help and support.)

Anyway, got it there, dead dead dead. Turned out the firewall connection was... well, not happy. Had to take it apart, clean it up, goop it with dielectric grease once it was all clean, and plug it back together. Charge it up... all was fine ever since.

I think what the reason wound up being is it's 'cause it has a voltmeter, so the power ran through the dash and back to measure that. Or is it an ammeter? I forget. Stupid electricity, magnets, how do they work!?

Uh... yeah. So this might be something to check out I guess is what I'm sayin', the firewall connection.

 

I had a similar situation with the ground cable to the block. Had recently installed the air conditioner bracket and tightened the ground with one of the bolts. Instructions should have said to drive a while then recheck the torque. That's all mine was.