Jim, I'm unclear on how you found the short. If you have the short you are refering to, it wouldn't last long. Did you get any smoke?
Be careful when hooking up your meter in series to the battery. The meter will be damaged if the draw is too high.

Since I'm not sure where you are at this point, I'll give advise from scratch.

1st - Do a check of the battery positive cable. The way to do this is to disconnect the battery end and the starter end. I'm not sure what other wires go to the pos+ battery terminal on a '75, but disconnect and label them.
With the + battery cable disconnected at both ends & the meter set on Ohms, touch one test lead to the positive cable and the other to the negative cable. There should be no reading or deflection on the meter. Keeping the test lead on the pos cable, touch the other lead to various grounds you can find. You should have no reading. If you get anything, replace the + battery cable.
One thing to remember is not to touch the test lead ends while you are check the resistance, otherwise you will be checking the resistance of your guts (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc)


It's difficult to help with electrical problems on line. Make sure that all of the connections are clean & not corroided. It is possible that your battery has an internal short. I've also seen batterys short out because they were dirty.

To check the "key off" draw, install a fully charged good battery. Get in the car with your meter & close the door. Turn the key on to the ignition position then turn it back off & remove the key. (this helps with late model cars to turn off any closed relays. On a new car you should also wait several minitues for all of the electronics to go to sleep).
Once the key is out, turn around in the seat without pressing the brake pedal or opening the door.
loosen the neg cable on the battery, but don't remove it yet. Set the meter on mili-amps. If it's a side terminal, put 1 test lead on the exposed terminal part on the batt (under the neg cable) & the other lead on the cable itself.
When both leads are making contact, remove the neg cable from the battery so that the meter is in series.
You should be reading under 50 mA.

Good luck.
Note: I just read the daily driver said the same thing - beat me to it.





[Modified by 71coupe, 3:28 PM 11/2/2001]

 

SUCCESS! Thanks everyone for all the tips. As one of you said, "Look for the simple things first." Today, my son-in-law and I jacked the car up and took a good look at the positive battery cable and the starter area. We found that the edge of the ignition shield had worn a very small hole in the cable very near to where it bolts to the starter motor. Some electrical tape and some judicious bending of the shield and we are back in business. I think that I will try and find some of that plastic convoluted shielding that they use on electrical wire bundles. I trust that stuff a lot more than electricians tape to prevent chafing!

Thanks again,
Jim Shea

 

Glad to hear that you found the problem. If there is a cut in the positive cable, it might be a good idea to replace the cable.

 

that cable is a major PITA to replace!!

ducktape it up and be done with it!!!

hahahaha

do a bubba

:conehead :conehead :jester :jester