Get a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter), pull the neg battery cable and connect the meter in series between the cable and the battery neg (ground) terminal. If there is any current flowing (with all systems off) you have a short that is draining the battery. That's the easy part. determining where it is takes a little more time. Keeping your eye on the meter, pull and replace your fuses, one at a time. When the current flow stops, you've found the circuit that has a short. From there isolate the leads within the circuit one at a time to find where the "action' is. Keep in mind that clocks and radios do have a constant draw so disconnect them before you start searching. Good luck
On Wednesday, March 31, 2004, at 06:17 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote: > Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 16:33:57 -0800 > From: Dylan Kahler <dkahler@UPS.EDU> > Subject: battery questions > > I've been having regular problems with batteries in my '85 westy. I've > replaced the battery twice now in 3 months (on warranty luckily). I > checked the alternator and it's giving the right voltage, and nothing > else seems to be draining down the battery. I don't set my fridge to > battery, and the water in the battery seems just fine. I've been using > the DieHard 30042 WeatherHandler which is what came in the van when I > purchased it from the PO. Is this battery too weak for the Vanagon? I > looked up this battery series online and it says they have up to 700 > cold cranking amps, so I don't understand why it wouldn't be > functioning fine (the '85 vanagon requires ~435 cca's right?) to start > up the van. Any clues as to what direction I should take from here? > > Thanks in advance, > > Dylan > dkahler@ups.edu |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.