Parasitic draw

[Bextreme04]

Thats an option but have to be careful the load doesn't exceed the fast blow fuse. Last I knew they were about $10. After buying several I use the shunts.

Remove negative cable, one clamp on the cable other on the battery. I say negative because no grounding issues. That is unless it is an older British car. In that case positive side.

Yeah, you have to make sure you have the terminals in the right spot of the multimeter. My fluke will handle up to 10A, and if you have that much draw... you would know it. Just use a light at that point. A 10A parasitic draw will pull a modern battery down from full charge to completely dead in just a few hours.

 

[Ricko1966]

Thats an option but have to be careful the load doesn't exceed the fast blow fuse. Last I knew they were about $10. After buying several I use the shunts.

Remove negative cable, one clamp on the cable other on the battery. I say negative because no grounding issues. That is unless it is an older British car. In that case positive side.

A couple of things I can add to this, in training ac/delco our instructor told us to make a fused lead for our meters with a fuse lower than the meter fuse,that way a failure was cheap and easy to repair. I usually just use a test light between negative cable and negative battery post. I think @fast 99 already mentioned that. If the lights lit disconnect the alternator,if the light is still lit pull fuses 1 at a time until the light goes out. When you pull the fuse that puts the light out replace that fuse with a 194 bulb,hook the battery back up and start taking loads off that fuses circuit until the 194 bulb goes out. I've got a pic of my 194 bulb I'll put up in a minute.

 

[fast 99]

agree, but sometimes I forgot that and turned the headlights or another high amp circuit on. Yes, a 10-amp draw is very excessive and normally much less.

 

[Uberbeans]

Disconnect negative battery cable. Set digital Mulitmeter to read "A". Connect one lead to the battery cable, connect other lead to the negative terminal on the battery. If you have a parasitic draw you should see something more than 0.5A on the meter with the key off. Start pulling fuses one by one and look at the multimeter after pulling each one. When the draw drops below 0.5A, you have found the circuit that has the draw in it.

Thats an option but have to be careful the load doesn't exceed the fast blow fuse. Last I knew they were about $10. After buying several I use the shunts.

Remove negative cable, one clamp on the cable other on the battery. I say negative because no grounding issues. That is unless it is an older British car. In that case positive side.

Thanks, guys. I'll definitely do this this weekend. I need to check the max on my multimeter as I don't have a shunt yet. I'm really tired of the battery losing voltage in three or four days.

(Sorry Buddhabelly I don't mean to hijack your thread)

 

[Uberbeans]

A couple of things I can add to this, in training ac/delco our instructor told us to make a fused lead for our meters with a fuse lower than the meter fuse,that way a failure was cheap and easy to repair. I usually just use a test light between negative cable and negative battery post. I think @fast 99 already mentioned that. If the lights lit disconnect the alternator,if the light is still lit pull fuses 1 at a time until the light goes out. When you pull the fuse that puts the light out replace that fuse with a 194 bulb,hook the battery back up and start taking loads off that fuses circuit until the 194 bulb goes out. I've got a pic of my 194 bulb I'll put up in a minute.

Ricko1966, are you saying that a bad alternator could cause a draw? Even if the alternator is working properly otherwise it could cause a draw?

 

[Goldie Driver]

Ricko1966, are you saying that a bad alternator could cause a draw? Even if the alternator is working properly otherwise it could cause a draw?

I am not an electrical guru but can promise you from experience on a 79 Trans AM that, yes, it can. It would drain the battery in 12 hours and test AOK on the parts house machine.

 

[Ricko1966]

QUOTE="Uberbeans, post: 939519, member: 41860"]
Ricko1966, are you saying that a bad alternator could cause a draw? Even if the alternator is working properly otherwise it could cause a draw?
[/QUOTE]
Absolutely. It's the first thing I'd disconnect. And didnt you say you changed the pigtail? Make dam sure you didn't flip the 2 wires

 

[legopnuematic]

An alternator on my 76 took a dump, when it did it began to back feed. I came outside and saw the cab lights were [dimly] illuminated. On these trucks the cab lights are wired to be on with key on, no bypass or switch for them. I’m sure other things were being back fed, but that was a visual indicator.

 

[Uberbeans]

QUOTE="Uberbeans, post: 939519, member: 41860"]
Ricko1966, are you saying that a bad alternator could cause a draw? Even if the alternator is working properly otherwise it could cause a draw?

Absolutely. It's the first thing I'd disconnect. And didnt you say you changed the pigtail? Make dam sure you didn't flip the 2 wires
[/QUOTE]
Not the pig tail the power lead is what I am considering. I would be interesting if it was the alternator....I will definitely check this out. A simple fix.

 

[Uberbeans]

An alternator on my 76 took a dump, when it did it began to back feed. I came outside and saw the cab lights were [dimly] illuminated. On these trucks the cab lights are wired to be on with key on, no bypass or switch for them. I’m sure other things were being back fed, but that was a visual indicator.

good advice, though I haven't had this symptom. I wondered if the door switches could allow a parasitic draw even if "open" (doors closed)

 

[Snoots]

agree, but sometimes I forgot that and turned the headlights or another high amp circuit on. Yes, a 10-amp draw is very excessive and normally much less.

https://www.lmctruck.com/lighting/headlight/ca-headlight-warning-buzzer?sename=lighting%2fheadlight%2fca-headlight-warning-buzzer

 

[YakkoWarner]

Ricko1966, are you saying that a bad alternator could cause a draw? Even if the alternator is working properly otherwise it could cause a draw?

Yes - my friend Dave had that happening on his 1987 C30. If there is a miswiring that keeps the exciter circuit live, that can cause it to happen even with a perfectly functioning alternator. A bad diode in an otherwise working alternator could do it too - it will charge perfectly fine but when the engine is off it can leak current back through the coils.

 

[Scott91370]

I'd never heard of an alternator doing this. Good info to know!!

 

[Uberbeans]

Disconnect negative battery cable. Set digital Mulitmeter to read "A". Connect one lead to the battery cable, connect other lead to the negative terminal on the battery. If you have a parasitic draw you should see something more than 0.5A on the meter with the key off. Start pulling fuses one by one and look at the multimeter after pulling each one. When the draw drops below 0.5A, you have found the circuit that has the draw in it.

Thanks for the advice. It's been a while, and I believe I solved the issues though I did several things at the same time so not sure if it was a single issue or a compound one. I changed my alternator to a 150 amp (with replacement 4-gauge cable), cleaned up a bunch of wiring, and installed buss bars on my battery to clean up the install of my accessories. I haven't tested if there is a draw like you recommended but now my battery voltage drop is less than .1 volt a day (.08ish) so that's a definite improvement and according to some research that its within the normal limitation. Also, my Optima yellowtops are pretty old...I did a separate battery load test and found they were good though roughly at 70% of capability. I can tolerate this amount of a draw now. I appreciate the great advice.