Well, I've been reading all the posts reguarding troubleshooting electrical drains and haven't figured this one out maybe someone can help...

This all started when I installed a stereo in my '79 f100 custom. Here's what happened:

had everything working but stereo amp wasn't powering off when ignition was switched off, and would drain battery. So I put in a large toggle switch to manually dissconect amp from battery. things seemed to be going well but while checking how tight my battery terminals were (while truck was running, probably a bad idea to begin with) the negitive terminal slipped off. This must have caused a large surge because the headlights immeadiatly got VERY bright and burnt out. So I replaced them and everything seemed to work. The problem is when the truck sits with batter connected it drains it completely dead in 6-8 hrs. Checked the amperage reading w/ a tester between pos battery terminal and pos cable and it reads 2.46 amps?mA? I'm kinda new to this. (while ignition is off) I've completely removed the stereo(damn thing started this whole mess!) and tried removing every fuse, still reads that truck is drawing 2.46...

I read in another post about tracking down drains in the electrical system, that I should try disconnecting the altenator and check that if it is still draining even with the fuses all out... havent gotten that far but I was thinking that the altenator seems fine because everytime I forget to dissconect the battery and it is drained all I have to do is jump the truck and the battery recharges within a short time... could the altenator have a short that's draining the battery when the truck isn't running? or should I start by exaiming the wiring running to my headlights, I think the headlight switch is on it's last leg anyway (before all of this it would sometimes fail to push in all the way and shut the lights off).

Am I even close to being on th right track?

This truck was sold to me for $1 and has a few other little problems, no interior light, lot's of wires that seem to go nowhere, etc...

As for now all I have to do is disconnect the battery everynight, but this is getting old and as it gets colder here I'm thinking the battery will not handle this constant drain as well as it has been.

Any info is greatly appreciated,

Thanks,
Jevfro

 

Well that voltage surge may have taken out a diode in the alternator.....that can cause a drain....... so I guess it is time to eliminate it by disconnecting it and trying the voltage drain check.
Also the voltage regulator may have been damaged so try disconnecting it if disconnecting the alternator doesnt cure the drain.
If they check out I guess it is the headlight circuit next.

 

Thanks sparky,
I traced it to the voltage regulator. Everything's rocking again. Thanks for the help. Whatta forum!

 

Congrats
Glad to hear she is fixed.