battery draining...HELP pls

[67cst]

talk about one problem after another, i guess its expected that you will have little gremlins to work out after a new motor and trans swap etc. everything is the same as it was before the swap ( wiring wise ) except i put a high torque mini starter in. i hooked up the battery cable to the correct post on the starter and also hooked up the purple wire to the post it goes to. the yellow wire going to the old starter i taped up and tucked it back in the loom it came out of, i was told it wasnt needed and it was for the old points ignition. is this correct? could it be the source of the dead battery? it isnt grounding on anything. when attemping to troubleshoot i took the wires off the junction block that is beside the battery bolted to the inside of the fender, anyways when i take the red and black wires off the junction block and hook up a multimeter to them the other end of the multi meter to the positive post on the battery there is a definate flow of current, should there be one? anyone with any ideas id love to hear them, i am pretty stupid when it comes to electrial stuff.

thanks,

[67cst]

also thought i should mention- when everything is hooked up and i have the negative cable on the battery grounded to the block and i hook up the positive cable to the battery i can hear a click, i think it sounds like its coming from the starter? is this right and should it be making that clicking noise? maybe this is the cause of the dead battery?

[GREASEMONKEY72]

kinda sound like the starter is still getting juice even when it shouldnt, because it shouldnt make any noise just hooking up the battery with the ignition off

[67cst]

im not sure, anyone else have any ideas?

[VetteVet]

The yellow wire is for the old coil to give it a full 12 volts for starting. It would have been hooked to the positive post on the coil along with the normal feed wire from the ignition. I assume you converted to HEI ignition so how did you feed the BAT terminal on the distributor? If you ran it to an ignition switch on source then that would be correct. If you ran it to a hot all the time 12 volt source the that would explain the battery drain.

[68speedalert]

Originally Posted by 67cst

...... hook up a multimeter to them the other end of the multi meter to the positive post on the battery there is a definate flow of current, should there be one? ....

What do you have the multimeter set on? If you have it set wrong, your tests mean nothing.

No, that yellow wire should not be a drain.

Leave it connected for a half hour and start placing you hand on anything electrical to check for heat build-up. If everything is stone cold when you start, the part that has the drain will be warmer.

[jhow66]

Hook your meter to the small post on starter and then hook battery up. Should be no voltage there -only when key is in start postion

[67cst]

checked everything, ive got the positive cable hooked up to the battery and a test light from the negative battery post to the negative battery clamp, the light comes on but is very faint. my friend came over who is a mechanic and told me to do that, we checked everything, like we un hooked one component at a time, starter, alternator, hei, ignition switch, headlight switch etc one at a time thinking the light would go out but it didnt. i guess next ill start pulling fuses one at a time while someone watches the test light to see if it goes out. ive come to conclude that whatever is draining power is coming from the red wire that comes off my junction block and into my harness that goes inside that plastic sheath under my top rad brackets and from there it goes to everything kinda...im rambling now..i think im going to bed. thanks for the help guys ill keep ya posted on this. and if anyone has anymore ideas id love to hear them

thanks, derek

[Duner97]

The test you did with connecting the testlight in between the neg terminal and the ground wire will give you a faint light if there is a draw. a bad draw could be a short, or it could be normal, perhaps because you have a radio that has presets and would always require some power. that test is good for basic equipment without electrical accesories. You mentioned you hear that click when you connect your battery... Choose a fuse, pull it and then connect your battery, does it still click? if so, disconect and try with a different fuse. Repeat as necessary. thats one way to eliminate the circuit stealing your power. Good luck!

[68speedalert]

Well, I've been a mechanic for 30 years and I've never used the test light for checking for a draw. It is VERY old school and not accurate.

You said you have a mutimeter. Use the 'dc amp' settings and hook-up. The leads (at least one of them) will go into a different spot on the meter.

Connect it just like you did the test light, putting the positive lead on the neg wire and the neg lead on the batt terminal.

Don't put a huge load on the circuit with the meter attached. They have an internal fuse to protect it that is usually about 10 amps. You can turn on your parking lights to check you connections, but DO NOT START it, the fuse will pop and you're dead on the testing part.

Check the draw. If it's more than 200mA (.2A), do like you said, disconnect items until it drops.

You say you have a draw; I assume the battery goes dead after sitting. How long does it take?

[BLACK AND BLUE 67-72]

Unplug your horn relay..

[Old Dave]

with BLACK AND BLUE

[hvychve]

That would be right track your on, eliminating one at a time, until the draw goes away, if using an ammeter, you should not see anymore than 50 mili amp draw any more is going to kill your batter. I would guess a good draw on these year trucks is going to be around 10-20 mili amp, due to having no ecm or additional computers to supply power and keep alive memory, the clock and radio memory is usually all we have. Horn relay would be the first place I checked, after confirming what the actual amp draw was. than I would tag the S terminal on the starter witha volt meter to see whats there with key off. better be nothing at all, along with the positive side of coil. you were on the right track by eliminating components one at a time. keep in mind if you have a dome light that comes on with door jam sw. , it will have to be eliminated , unless you check fuses and etc from inside by hanging through window or with doors closed..... good luck and keep us informed.

[68speedalert]

Dead on again hvychy.

I had a aftermarket radio in a car that drew 250mA's and would kill the battery overnight. I though that the battery would last longer than that.

I'm leaning towards the voltage regulator, regardless if it's been converted to internal reg.

[67cst]

black and blue, you are a genius...turns out it was the horn relay. thanks for the heads up. all you guys i appreciate the input.

what a great site. mustve saved me countless hours in the past with these types of things