BIG Problem!!! Need some help ASAP!

[foulplay]

Hey guys I have a RB20 in my S13 and it has been running great for the past 4 weeks. I drove it to work today with no problems what so ever. Then lunch time comes around and the f*cker wont start. Dead, no nothing, it wont crank, tick, chime. So i figured I must have left my fans on (even though the switch is in the off position), I got it jumped and it fired right up, until he took off the jump box then the tach immediatley needle dropped to zero and the car began to run crappy and died. We jumped it again fired right up, gave it gas and as long as I kept the RPMs above 2k then it would run fine. Anything below 2k the tach needle would drop immediatley to zero and run crappy. This time it ran crappy for about 5 minutes before it died.

Does anyone know what the problem could be? Altenator, battery...etc? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S.- When the car started the 2nd time after being jumped and while i was giving it gas I decided to turn the fans on, and immediatley the tach needle dropped but continued running. While the needle was at zero with me giving it gas I decided to give it some more throttle and out of nowher the needle went haywire and went past 8k. I turn the fans off then the tach started functioning normally until I drop it below 2k.

PLEASE HELP! Hopefully its just a battery because I dont even want to know how much it will cost me to get my car towed from Ft.Knox base to my home in Louisville, which is 40 miles.

ThanksDanny

[foulplay]

Just to let you know I have my battery charging as we speak and I also got a battery tester for when its done charging.

I will let you know how that goes if I dont hear anything from you guys before I leave work.

[Darius]

You're on the right track.

[lazyboi444]

Sounds like the Alternator. Get a full system test. That will tell you who is the problem. But from what you say sounds like that the alternator was slowly dying so then the car start relying on the battery to power it until it drained itself. So now you have a dead battery. So get the battery charged up and then test the system.

[blurrbosi]

BTW: gauges tend to go haywire when power loss occurs.

[foulplay]

Cool, I didnt know that about the gauges. Thats why I tried to give you all, so much detail about my problem.

The battery is just about fully charged, and I will do a load test and hopfully that will fix my problem.

please dont be the altenator please dont be the altenator please dont be the altenator please dont be the altenator please dont be the altenator

I will let you all know within the hour.

ThanksDanny

[Carl H]

sounds like some fubared grounds to me...

[foulplay]

sounds like some fubared grounds to me...

or possibly me leaving the parking lights turned on

with battery fully charged we did a load test on the battery, it was fine. Re-installed battery and noticed that the parking lights were on, oops.

Thanks guys