Hi all:

In order to describe why my wiring issue has come to the forefront of my list of things to do, let me describe my most recent embarrassment. It happened about 1 hour ago. I am a police officer in Austin Texas. I recently got my 1980 engine swap done, and I was excited to show my car off to my co-workers. I drove it up to the sub. No problem. I left the sub. Vroom. I got off work at 6:30 am, and I had court at 8:30 am. I drove to a coffee shop. Then I walked out, turned the key and...splat. Hero to Zero. So here I am standing in my cop uniform flagging down the nearest driver (an old lady who chastised me to take this as a lesson, presumably for handing out tickets to people in emergencies?) to give me a jump. Ugh.

I've had issues with the battery getting sucked dry since I've had the car. I spent months disconnecting the negative battery cable every time I got out of the car. Then I got motivated and traced the leak to the ctsy/clk fuse. So I pulled it. I know, Bubba in my blood.

But what I really want to do is find the leak. Now my wiring is certainly ugly looking, but I've read some posts suggesting that replacing the wiring harness is not necessarily called for.

I am totally lost when it comes to wiring. But I have patience and some time.

*** How do I trace my problem? I get confused when I look at the bazillion wires. I don't really know what I'm looking for. Where do I start? Can somebody give me a beginner's overview on how to trace a wiring problem? I have an ammeter. I'm happy to read books, articles or whatever it takes to figure this out.

Thank you thank you thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to any help you can provide.

Darrel

 

Your battery died from a full charge to nothing in 3 hours? I doubt it. You have a loose battery connection somewhere. I would start with where the neg terminal leaves the battery box and attaches to the frame underneath, but it could be anywhere in the battery positive or negative circuit (ie loose positive cable at the starter)

 

Is the battery light/GEN light on your dash lit up at all?

 

This is probably not a case of battery drain while the car is off.
Usually that causes more issues when the car has been sitting for a while, usually at least over night.
You are probably having a problem with your alternator not charging.
Unless you see an obvious wiring issue, then get the alternator tested first.

 

It sounds like from reading your OP that removing the courtesy light fuse takes care of the problem. If that is correct then you have narrowed it down to the courtesy light circuit and your asking for help to find what it is on that circuit that is draining your battery.If the draining of the battery still takes place with the fuse out then it could be some of the things the others are describing.

 

Sounds to me like the no-start happened more recently then the fuse removal, since the no-start was stated as occurring one hour before this post.

But, we can leave it to the OP to clarify.

 

Take her to any generic auto parts place which tests alternators. Have them test the alternator and the battery.

Courtesy circuit has a delay timer in it. Check the timer.

Sounds squirrely, but check the visor vanity mirror to make sure the light is not on.

 

The courtesy-clock drain issue is normally in the delay timer. Remove it and tie the two white wire together. This takes it out of the circuit, but allows the door switches to operate normally.

 

thanks for all of the replies! i'll get back to all of you.

the alternator is brand new. it was part of the turn key zz4 crate motor i put in. it seems like if there is a problem with it that it would be from some sort of crappy wiring job i did instead of the alternator itself. any tips on what order the wires should be in?

dwncchs: before i pulled the fuse, i had a 2.4 Amp drain. after i pulled it i had .05 so i narrowed it down to the ctsy/clk set of wires. everything was fine until earlier today. my battery died again. the battery is less than a year old. it has had some hard flogging from multiple jumps and drains though.

so i have a two part problem you could say. 1. with the fuse in, i'd like to find the drain and i don't know how to do that. what exactly am i looking for. when one of you looks at a big jumble of wires, what makes you say "oh, that wire at that spot is causing the problem" 2. with the fuse out i don't want to have grandmas give me jumps any more.

thanks in advance! y'all are great!

 

Look for the delay timer. Should be orange, or sometimes black, up over the passengers foot well. Unplug that and recheck you drains with the fuse in place.

 

Check the fuse box. i had the same problem and it tuned out to b that the box was cracked and the wires were touching so it would drain my battery.

 

Just a thought. After we put the engine back in our car the battery was having issues, so I replaced it with brand new battery. It started it no problem. Three days later it would not even turn the starter over, I jumped it and it started great. My alternator was new , my battery was new, but the brand new battery had a bad cell in it.
Get someone to check that stuff out. I think I read that your battery was a year old. Take it back to where you got it and get them to check it. Most places are glad to exchange it, especially just a year old.

 

I'm not a huge fan of battery cutoffs but if you install one and use it and find the car starts good when disconnected then that would rule out the battery as a problem.If you continue to have a problem even after disconnecting then you might have another isssue besides a battery drain.Wouldnt be the first time a vette has more than 1 problem at a time.

 

Although I am still thinking "loose or dirty cable" on the 2nd part of the problem, the sudden no-start. Where I am, close to the salt water here in Florida, it does not take much.

 

bad delay timer...

 

Thanks everybody for the help. I've got a new direction!

 

It could be new and bad right out of the box. Stranger things have happened. Have it tested and you'll know one way or the other.