Battery Ghost Drain????

[javamanxxx]

Could someone point me to the right direction so I can read up about the best/proper way to find/hunt down a slow electrical drain on my battery? My 1971 F-100 has had the power drain for a while. Have to keep the truck on a trickle charger when not driving it every day or so. Battery is good ,wiring is tight, as in not to mucked up over the years......Thanks

[jzjames]

When Ive had the battery drain from time to time it has led to a radio with something or other. Radio didnt shut down, or the radio memory function. It had a handmedown radio in it.

[cash667]

Could someone point me to the right direction so I can read up about the best/proper way to find/hunt down a slow electrical drain on my battery? My 1971 F-100 has had the power drain for a while. Have to keep the truck on a trickle charger when not driving it every day or so. Battery is good ,wiring is tight, as in not to mucked up over the years......Thanks

If you have a multimeter/VOM it´s possible to measure if something is draining your battery:

measure battery drain.jpg

set the multimeter to DC amps reading, start with most highest reading range and go down step by step until you see some readings. I would expect something in the two digit milli amps range.
When doing that test DO NOT switch on the ignition or other other things (radio, headlights,...) since this would draw to much amps and could kill your multimeter.
Leave the ignition switch in off position and make sure that everything else is off too!

If you have a reading on the multimeter you know that something is drawing power from the battery. Now start to remove fuses from the fuseblock step by step. After every fuse take a look on the multimeter, if it went to 0 you know what circuit ist draining the battery and you´ll be able to narrow it more and more down.

Chris

[basketcase0302]

Good replies above.
Also an old skool trick is to pull all the fuses and disconnect the battery positive. Go back out at dark, (under hood needs to be somewhat in the dark working with a flashlight) and put the fuses back in one at a time and each time put the positive cable back on. When you see the cable arc it's a dead giveaway of the source.

Also keep in mine our older radios had a condensor installed for noise suppression that will always cause an arc, (a slight drain or pull to charge).

[cep62]

I had a intermittent drain. one time , it turned out to be the ign switch wouldn't always shut off.
I got lucky once and noticed the weak battery before I turned the key .
so I caught it in the act.