Ok i have a 77 f250 with a 400. everything has been fine so far untill my timing chain slipped and i drug her home, and ripped it apart. well upon removing the alternator to replace the timing chain i dropped the alternator ( no sparks just hit the frame). So i put it all back together and fire it up. the alternator threw some sparks but then everything was fine. well i let it sit for 3-4 days and i go to use it and she's dead. So i charge her up and figure the alternator caused the drain. I had alternator tested and replaced. hooked everything up and charged the battery. while charginf i noticed the regulator started smoking. I unhooked the battery and then checked for a drain with my test light. sure enough it was draining somewhere. i tracked it down to the wire that connects to the "I" on the regulator. instead of replacing the regulator i replaced everything with a alternator from my 88 Mustang ( internally regulated w/same case). well after the swap the same wire still had a drain on it. I cut this wire and everthing still works as normal. Any ideas what is going on with this wire? it only drains when hooked to the alternator. Seems to be some 12v constans wire tied into a couple other wires and the starter solenoid.. THanks

 

Well i had a short one time and couldnt figure it out to i got to thinkin and i had a friend take off the battery cable and put a test light between the two "cable and battery" and i pulled a fuse one at a time untill i found the circut that was shorted and i checked every thing on that curcut till i found my dead short ya see when i pulled that fuse the test light went off pluged it in came on so there for it had to b on that curcut and shore enuf it was, hope that helps some let me know....

 

did that first but thanks