Date:         Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:19:17 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Rogue Battery Draw on 84 Westy
Comments: To: Jamie Fitterer <fittdog8848@HOTMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <SNT141-W139F813018F401FD88FC0BA0830@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 02:54 PM 9/27/2012, Jamie Fitterer wrote:
>that we have seen many times over, or am I on the hunt for Red
>drawing power circuit?   I DO NOT want to take this to a mechanic as
>every time i do, I end up with more problems than when I went
>in.  Any suggestions would be very helpful.

If you do end up farming it out, try an auto electrics shop.  I
suspect they'll do much better than your average mechanic.

If the parasitic drain turns out not to be in a fused circuit, and to
locate it exactly if it is, put a long wire on the B+ at the battery;
then set voltmeter on 200 mV scale and clip one lead to the
wire.  Take a pin and start looking for wires/places where the
voltmeter reading is not zero, because in an open circuit the voltage
will be equal everywhere.  Any voltage drop indicates a current
flowing in that wire.  The more drop, the closer you are to the place
that's actually shunting the current to ground.

Radios with fluorescent-panel displays that stay on when the radio is
off draw something like 300 mA or more to run the panel, and will
drain a battery.  They usually have some sort of setup or wiring
choice that lets you turn off that misfeature; see the install manual.

Yours,
d