Power Drain
 

I havent started the truck in a week and a half. I go out and turn the key nada. Put my multimeter on the battery and guess what 9.25 instead of 12. Put the charger on for an hour and a half and he fires right up. I saw the faq regaridng key drains. I unplugged everything from the fuse box except for the fuel sending unit. Is there anything else that I could try?

Thanks

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With everything unplugged are you still getting the drain?

sounds like a bad battery. put a charge on it and take a reading after the charge cycle.How old is the battery?reconnect the battery and start the engine and get a reading of your charging circuit.If both are OK you will have to pull fuses one at a time to check for shorts in the circuits at the fuse block.could be a voltage regulator or an alternator not completing the charge pattern also. sounds like an old battery that needs replaced.

There's a Diode inside the alternator that occassionally goes bad, It will charge in a normal manner, everything does what it's supposed to do ( charge well) then it drains the battery when the key is off..

You can do somewhat a test at home without diagnostic equipment, Just charge the battery then Unplug all wires from the alternator and let it set a few days. But it's faster and free to have it checked.

Krue: Yes everything is unplugged from the fuse box minus the fuses. I will try unplugging the alternator.get a reading and then check again tomorrow and see what happens. I will post back what I find.

Thanks

Why not just unplug the +pos. cable on the battery when you store it? I do minew every time it goes into storage for more than a couple weeks.
BUT it definetly is a good idea to figure out why it drains.

Have the same issue, checked all the wiring seems to be right.

Net will be the alternator.

Try checking the fusible links at the front of the engine compartment, they're in small black fuse holders. One is hooked up to a junction box on the passenger fender, and the other one is in almost the same spot on the drivers side. There's a really small 5 amp fuse in both of 'em. Not sure if that's the problem, but it's good to check 'em anyway.

unhook the positve cable put one lead of your voltmeter on the battery the other end on the battery cable it will read a voltage have a buddy start pulling fuses until the draw goes away it will read very low when you find the problem like well under .5 a volt. that test will get you looking in the right spot just check everything on the circuit that that particular fuse controls

It just so happens that I am going to have to do this now, since I have found that I have a key off drain since I put my engine back in the truck.

Found mine, it's the positive cable.:(

Bad cable hu? HMM. Maybe I will change mine out.

Thanks

Got against the manifold.

when i put my motor in i switched to a (used) newer style internally regulated alternator and put an electric fan on it. i got a key off drain about two weeks later. i took my alternator in to autozone and they said it was fine. so i figured my battery just wasnt holding a charge anymore so i went out and con-ed the guy at the auto parts store to exchange my 3 year old optima for a new one (only a 1 year warrenty), killed my new battery. after 3 days of chasing wires i took it to a shop. my alternator that autozone said was fine wasnt. it charged fine, but it had a key off drain. the electric fan burnt the diaod up. so new 80 amp(i think) alternator, no problems.