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Electrical short

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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 07:09 PM
  #1  
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Default Electrical short

I have a short SOMEWHWERE? when I put my battery charger on I get a red trouble light on my charger. The battery is being drained while it sits.

I have removed all the top fuses to see if the trouble light went off, it did not.

3 fuses are blown, Horn, Ash tray cig lighter and LD monitoring. Any ideas on what to check next?
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 07:43 PM
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What year do you have?
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 10:42 PM
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1997
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 10:49 PM
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I'd check the area behind the cig lighter... they way the connector sticks straight out back there, it could be grounding itself on something metal...

Not to over-simplify matters, but have you looked inside the cig lighter area? Make sure no pennies have gone it there?
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 11:41 PM
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Not discounting that you may have a short somewhere but, are you sure the light on the charger is not an indicator to show whether or not you have the cables hooked up correctly to the battery?

Did you try disconnecting the neg battery cable and then hooking up the charger to see if you still get the red light?
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Old Mar 7, 2007 | 08:46 AM
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Default Short.

Yes, I did check to make sure there was nothing in my cigarette lighter. I have not checked the connection behind it yet though. You would think though that if it were the case, the fuse blowing would remove the short. Removing the power to the cig lighter should remove the short. Even with the fuses blowed and removed, the short still exists.

My battery charger has a green light a yellow light and a red light. (charged, charging and trouble)

On my charger, If you take th + and - clips and touch them toghether, the trouble light comes on. THis causes the charger to turn off and stop charging, which it should, since there is a dead short.

I have removed the battery and I can hook my charger up to the terminals and the trouble light comes on. If I drive the car, I have to remove one of the terminals from the battery when I park, or the battery will drain. With the battery removed from the car, I put the charger on it and get a yellow light, so the short is not in the battery.

Nothing has ever been done to my wiring that I am am aware of, except installing the "column lock bypass" , I will be checking that area as soon as I can.

Last edited by dunringill; Mar 7, 2007 at 08:51 AM.
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Old Mar 7, 2007 | 09:02 AM
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I would also look under the battery area for signs of corrosion - the early delco batteries had a habit of leaking....
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Old Mar 7, 2007 | 09:08 AM
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Under the battery is very clean, looks new.
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Old Mar 8, 2007 | 10:48 AM
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Ok, this is crazy, but a good crazy, at least for now.

After putting afull charge on the battery, I figure I'll go ahead and drive the car to work and pull the cable off when i park so the battery won't drain.

I put the battery back in car cranks up fine. Just for kicks I put my charger back on. NO TROUBLE LIGHT!. So I take the terminals off, test for a short with my meter, NO SHORT. WHatever was sucking juice off the battery stopped.

Is the problem gone, or will it come back, that is the question now.
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