Hey everybody, sorry it's been so long since I was last here; working for a railroad and going to school (Tulane in Madison) at night eats up every minute of what spare time I used to have. Anyways, I am having an issue with my 02 Tremor and hope I can get some help. Since I drive a company provided F150 every day for work, my trusty Ranger doesn't get driven as much as she used to, so about two weeks ago when I tried to crank her, the five year old battery was dead, no surprise there.

The surprise is I put a new battery in and saw sparks when the positive cable was touched to the terminal - I know, current draw. Checked the I/P fuse panel one fuse at a time and saw spark on pos terminal - disconnected the alternator and voltage regulator and saw sparks - disconnected the starter and saw sparks - disconnected the remote keyless entry I installed over winter 2010 and saw sparks.

Hooked a multimeter to the battery while connected and watched voltage drop steadily to 12.5; disconnect battery and battery recovers to 12.99. Connected battery and started the engine, checked the voltage - started at 14.4 then worked its way down to 14.2 before i shut the engine off and disconnected the battery.

Checked continuity of the voltage regulator and it is 3.2 ohms, which is good. Checking o/p of alternator when running is about 14.4 - o/p of voltage regulator is about 14.0. I would maybe think voltage regulator brushes may need to be replaced but even when it is taken out of circuit there is still a battery drain as evidenced by the previously mentioned spark on the pos terminal of the battery.

Short of pulling the alternator and having it checked at AutoZone, I am out of ideas...

 

I think if it were me, I would pull all the fuses and relays then check for a draw - if no draw, then start putting the fuses and relays back in one at a time while checking for a draw after each one is reinstalled - that might help narrow down where it's coming from...

Just a thought...

 

Well, that's what I did last night - pulled each fuse out and had my wife check the battery after each pull. Finally found fuse 26 "battery saver relay" - pulled the interior light bulb to eliminate the draw and now need to find where this relay is and replace it.

 

I've had a similar problem on my Ranger. Drives all day, leave it over night, next morning battery dead. The current draw I was seeing was only about 250 ma, didn't seem like enough to kill a battery. It turned out to be a relay in the fuse box under the hood. The relay was relay 56B used for the front washer pump, which still works. How I figured it out was this, I was going under the assumption that a relay was stuck. So, knowing that if it was stuck in the on position and I put it in the A/C clutch relay slot it should turn the clutch on. So, I pulled the A/C clutch relay and one at a time put the other relays of the same type into that slot. The second or third one I did turned the A/C clutch on. When I checked the relay with and ohm meter it was ready continuity between contacts 3 and 4 and 3 and 5 at the same time. Meaning the normally closed and open contacts were shorted together. I changed the relay and the problem was solved. You could actually check the relays with the ohm meter instead of plugging them into the A/C clutch like I did, probably safer. There is a diagram on the side of the relay that shows how the inner workings of the relay are wired and the diagram is shown in the deenergized position.

 

Just to add a little, the reason why I thought it was a relay was, I had checked or replaced or swapped everything else and nothing seemed to be wrong. The only thing left was relays.