Could the starter give me the draw reading I am getting at the alternator?

 

The picture you posted is placing the blame on the alternator, but your otherwise clear scenario got "mudded" when you got amost the same draw from the battery with the alternator disconnected

 

I know, I thought I had it at the alternator. Makes my head hurt.

 

LOL - Clean your slate and begin from scratch tomorrow.

 

Okay, new day, fresh start. I connected everything back up over night, and charged the battery to a full 13.09V. Would disconnecting the battery tender wake the car up? Before checking draw at the battery, I checked the alternator again.

Here is what I get at the alternator with everything else connected , 1.07A draw:



Hooked the alternator back up, and tested draw at the battery. Would hooking the alternator back up wake the car up?

Here is the draw at the battery with the alternator hooked back up, 1.205A.



Next, I disconnected the alternator to see if I got a drop in draw at the battery, which I should, in theory, but it did not drop at all.

Hooked the alternator back up and disconnected the black wire from the engine fuse box stud, there is a red and a black, I am assuming the black goes to the inside fuse box.
The draw dropped to 1.066A with just the black wire off, roughly a 14ma drop, which is understandable, right?



Next, I disconnected both the red and black wires from the engine fuse box, just to see if there was any difference, no difference really, 1.067A draw.

.

Hooked everything back up, started the car, shut it down, disconnected the battery, the draw was the same as the start, 1.205. Is it possible that's my draw when the car is awake, and that maybe it is not going to sleep? Not sure what to check next. My xcar does shut everything down when the battery is hooked up, is it different when using jumpers to check the draw?


Mike

 

Well,,, you have the meter set up WRONG. You are not reading AMPS. You MUST put the positive lead in the 10 AMP slot to read amps. Yu also need to select DC AMPs

With the way it is set up, there zero way to know what that reading means.

Bill

 

Boy, do I feel like an idiot. Thanks Bill. I changed my meter to the 10 AMP slot, getting 25 to 27 ma draw at the battery with everything hooked up, then checked the alternator again with the same settings, 0 draw. Turn out I don't have a problem after all.

What got all this started was my old battery, which was only 4 years old, was not holding a charge, it would run down in a week to 10 days. Bought the new battery but wanted to make sure I did not have a drain and ruin the new battery. A lot of work for not, except knowledge.

Thanks to everyone that put up with my electrical incompetence.

Mike

 

THANK YOU! I just started reading this multi-day thread today, and that's the first thing I noticed. I was wondering how long it would take before someone noticed that.

 

The picture in post #9 your meter is set at amps but the red lead is plugged in at the volts. Maybe plug in the red lead into the 10 amp socket and see what happens.

 

Ummm, READ posts 26, 27 and 28.

 

I saw your hookup and was gonna mention about leads hooked up wrong but Mr. Curlee beat me to it! All is not lost if you are using a Fluke meter. Best on the market in my 34 years experience using them. Glad you found you don't have a problem!