Carry a 5/16 box end wrench and disconnect a cable before you leave. I'm not generally a Harbor Freight shopper but they've got a quite nice "specialty" ratcheting

http://www.harborfreight.com/5-16-in...nch-97261.html

 

Battery disconnect switch.

 

That's way more aggravation than necessary but no doubt a "long term" solution or "patch" for a car with parasitic draw issues.

 

A motorcycle charger will work if it puts out 12 volts. Maybe not ideal. A warning on my float charger says , do not leave unplugged and still hooked up to the battery. I personally do not leave any charger, floater,hooked up to a battery that is in the car, overnight--especially in a garage.

Another way to monitor your battery / charging system is to look at your digital voltage screen on the car-- if you have one for your year. Typically when first starting up the charging voltage will read something in the 14s. After 5-10 min. of running the car that number should start to drop slowly by tenths of a volt. For a battery in ok shape that number will get into the 13s, the lower the better, indicating that the battery doesn't need as much juice since it is accepting a charge. If after a half hour or so if you see that the alternator is still trying to push higher voltage into the battery, then that would be cause for concern about the condition of the battery. Now here is the bigger problem that we all should be concerned about and it isn't the battery. Batteries are cheap compared to alternators. I am guilty of this also. If your going to run around with a so so battery you are taxiing the alternator and shortening its life. You can buy 5-6 batteries for what an alternator costs and the alternator that you buy isn't as good as the one that came on the car to begin with. Reading the CF you will find people having major probs replacing their alternators. Walmart sells a battery for $48 bucks, $60 without a trade. It's made by Johnson Controls. Replace your battery every few years if you like and still be a head of the game.

 

JOE C, my schumaker charger does say maintainer/ FLOAT so I guess I'm good there. [DONT KNOW ABOUT QUALITY THOUGH}
AUGGY, you say it says don't leave hooked up, I wonder if its to prevent discharging or a fire?
I brought my battery to a shop that sells only batteries, mine was totally drained when I removed it, he said its reading 6.6 volts I guess. said he will charge it and then will know if its good. I figured since he only sells batteries he would definitely say it was shot. instead he showed me it was reading like 12.5 and said it should be ok. only charged me 5 bucs. good to know there are still some honest shops around here. anyway, I now have it hooked up to the tender AND PLUGGED IN. will check it in a couple weeks. thanks everyone again for all the very helpful info,Nutsy

 

I had one of these on my 72 which worked fine but with the computers on these cars will disconnecting battery cause any problems when you hook it back up other than radio stations or clock?

 

It says don't leave it connected to the battery if you have it unplugged from the wall. Schuer(spelling?) is a very good brand from what I understand.

 

chap on facebook suggested this to help figure my power drain out. [ bought one, haven't had time to use it yet ]

http://bit.ly/2l6InNT

automotive fuse circuit tester has specially designed test leads that plug directly into your fuse box to quickly diagnose electrical problems. The tester can be used on all circuits up to 30 amps.

13.99

 

Use the Rifleman's chart and put a digital VOM and the maintainer unplugged across the battery without starting the car. The voltage will give you an idea of its condition. Now plug in the maintainer. You should see an increase in the voltage to 13-14 volts. If you don't see an increase its not charging

 

I'm going to say PROBABLY on that question, because while a friend was away for a few days there was a storm that knocked out their power. They were on the end of the power line so nobody was around to call it in. Her battery tender was plugged in when the power went off, and her battery was dead as yesterdays news when she came home.
(Her fridge and freezer were a stinking mess too, but that's a different story!)

 

If I unplug a tender I always disconnect it from the battery. I have heard it drains as well...although I've never tried to leave it hooked up when not plugged in.

 

I had one of those for a while, it eventually failed on me. I had the thing snap off and the car died on the highway. I eventually replaced it with one I got from Summit, changing out both the positive and negative cables to reroute it to a location under the drivers side headlight on a plate I made. Works great and don't have to worry about this one snapping off like the old one did. simple 1/4 turn of the handle to engage or disengage power to the car.

 

OP, have you actually taken the battery out of the car and tested it?

If you haven't then I offer that the battery may not be bad at all and here is my experience as to why I say that.

Last year I left my battery hooked up in the car and only charged it occasionally with a battery tender style charger. I thought I had no issues as the light always turned green in a few minutes (probably less actually as I never physically watched it turn green but left it and came back in a few minutes to check on it). Then one day I tried to start the car to move it outside to clean the garage. Guess what. No start. I checked the battery with my VOM and there was 0 voltage.

Turns out the car's battery connections were not making contact inside the screw terminals of the battery. Call it corrosion or whatever you want. All I had to do was loosen the terminals and retighten them. Viola! Voltage. Of course I had to charge the battery again but the issue was not the battery in the first place.

Hope that helps.

 

I brought battery to a battery shop and was told it was reading 6.6 volts I think. he charged it and it then read 12.5. he said it should be good. I just found the manual for my float charger and it says it will draw mila volts or something like that when not plugged in and will drain battery over a long period so this is why mine went dead. I think I'm good now.