Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:02:17 -0500
Reply-To: Richard Koller <kollerr@HELIX.NIH.GOV>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Richard Koller <kollerr@HELIX.NIH.GOV>
Subject: Re: Electrical Gremlin of Jan 18 has been detected
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Greetings all,
I would like to update the List on my gremlin project of a
week or so ago. This was a current drain that was killing my battery ( '90
westy syncro ) First many thanks to the electrical gurus on the List who
gave me excellent advice. I took it. I checked for switches that might have
been on by mistake and found none ( or so I thought ) Next I made sure my
battery and alternator were working properly and they were. I then set up an
ammeter in series at the negative terminal of the battery to measure any
current flow from the vehicle. From one of the you Tubes Hector sent me, a
reading of 50ma was a " normal " baseline value. I had 200. So something was
on in the van. The plan next was to pull fuses one at a time to see if the
current flow would decrease and thus corner the gremlin. While I was
touching the ammeter probe to the battery terminal I noticed a clicking
sound near the fridge. I did this several times and thought it sounded like
a relay switch clicking on somewhere near the fridge. I opened the door to
the fridge and there the 12volt switch was in the on position. Now
theoretically, this should not have caused the drain since that 12 volt
function is supposed to work only with the engine running. When I popped the
12 volt switch off, the ammeter now read about 50ma and there was no more
clicking sound. I presume this must be a sticky relay for the fridge that
is under the driver's seat. I haven't looked yet because of cold and dark
but will report more to the List when it's a bit warmer and no rain outside.
Thanks again to you all.
Rick
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