Dave Archer

Hey,

I bought an 80 vette this spring, engine is not stock 383 stroker. The fellow said it had a little short so he installed a kill switch. Once I got it home I discovered it would kill the battery in 1 hr with the kill switch turned on.

I've replaced the alternator and battery, the battery had a bad cell. This changed it to draining the battery in 1 day. I have put a light on the ground wire and have pulled all of the fuses. There was no change in the draw with all fuses pulled! The draw does stop when I remove the power wire from the alternator.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Dave

SH-60B

Wow, whats drawing enough amps to kill a battery in a day? Try using a meter instaed of a lite. The battery + goes directly to the starter solenoid, everything else is protected by fusible links and fuses. Think you could take the solenoid out of the circuit and re-test?

Dave Archer

Thanks, I'll try that. I'll need to get a better multi-meter the one I have only reads milliamperes and it pegs out.

Dave Archer

Ok I have a meter now and car is on stands.

It is pulling 7.01 amps. When I disconnected the wires to the starter solenoid the amp draw went to 0. I hooked the light up to it to test and is was extremely dim.

Next I connected the two connectors together that were attached to the solenoid WITHOUT TOUCHING the solenoid and I got the same 7 amp reading. The two connectors are the main power and 3 smaller red wires with inline fuses leaving the starter solenoid.

Any ideas what I should do next?

68-427Rich

Remove the negative battery cable from the battery. Connect your test light, or meter, to the negative battery post. Now start touching metal parts such as the door striker, dome light switch, etc. with the other lead from the light or meter. Something that is hot all the time is most likely your problem.

Horn switch contacts

Brake light switch

Dome light

Power locks, mirrors, seats

SIXFOOTER

Sounds like the ground wire from the engine main harnes is connected to the battery circuit. There should be a black ground wire coming from the main harness along the firewall down the pass side , it has a large ring terminal on it and it Should be connected to the bell housing. Frequently it gets connected to the solenoid terminal because it fits, the drain would most likely be running through the wiper motor. Run that down and make sure its all connected correctly. I think there are supposed to be 2 red wires with fuse links plus the big battery cable on there. If there is another small black wire you found the problem.

pawpaws toy

I agree with six footer because I had the same problem. Quick check is to pull plug from wiper motor and check for 12V on the neg side.

BlackC3vette

Putting my engine back in with a new harness, I noticed that that ground wire could be easily confused.

Dave Archer

Wow!

Thank you gentlemen, I can't wait to get home from work tomorrow and try this out.
Dave

JimLentz

Sounds like a bad alternator.

terry82

that would be a good place to start.disconnect wire on the back and see if you draw down the battery

Dave Archer

I've done this ...when I pull the double ( not sure what to call these) control wires nothing happens. But when I pull the main red power wire I have no draw. So I replaced the alternator with new 100 amp chrome one and it does the same thing.

I did take it down to auto zone and they checked the new alternator with a machine on the car and they said it was ok.

Thank you all for feedback. It's greatly appreciated.

jsera

Another point to check, I had a bad power antenna that would draw every twenty seconds and drain the battery within a day too.

Dave Archer

Hey I have finally solved the problem. I pulled the starter and cleaned the connections this dropped the pull but I still had 5+ amp pull. I checked the alternator again, when I pulled the small red wire the draw went away. So I pulled the alternator and took it down to a shop. The new alternator tested good. But they made a discovery. Although the alt. was externally setup as a 3 wire, internally it was set up as a 2 wire. I installed tonight as a 2 wire alt and my problems are solved. Only has 1 big red wire going to it now and the brown is the only wire in the clip. All works fine, charges, and gauges work! Yay! Go team thank you all for your help. It made me go back to the beginning again.