Battery drain help...

[terd ferguson]

You've probably seen my sorrow and woe with rewiring my truck. Here's the latest...




I did a total rewire on my '55 2nd series with 235 and 3 speed. After the rewire, I had a timing/diztributor issue with a big stumble and popping through the carb. I traced it to the insulated bushing in the distributor case and got a new distributor. I installed the new dizzy and I set the timing to tdc today by the "take the #1 plug out, feel the air, line up the ball" method. Went to start it and the battery is deader than disco. The battery is brand new. It worked fine when I first put it in three or four days ago. It cranked the engine plenty strong over and over when I was trying to sort out the timing/distributor issue.

The only accessories I have are factory lights and factory gauges. The key switch was off and the key was out during the time the battery drained. The lights were also off. The horn is not hooked up yet, the wire is loose with the bare end taped up. Same deal with the fuel sender, I haven't taken out the seat yet to hook it up so it's taped up. Everything worked like it should when the battery was new.

After I got it roughly timed today and discovered the battery was dead, I hooked the charger to it. It made a strange buzzing sound at the voltage regulator. Way louder than the normal low buzzing sound the charger makes. Also, the charger cables got hot pretty quick.

I checked and double checked wiring and routing and all seems to be ok.

If I don't get to drive this truck again soon, I'm going to go insane. Please help, I'm sure it's something simple, just don't know what or what direction to start looking in.

Thanks in advance for the help.