No bulb under hood. Don't think I had the door open when I did the test. Just ran the test again and made sure the door was closed. Same results 15.56 mA on the digital meter and a pulse on the test light. Read some where on line that some PCM's step down in power when you turn a car off and it can take up to a hour to power all the way down and you should wait at least a hour before you test for parasitic draw. Do you think that may have something to do with the pulse on the test light? If .05 Amp = 50 mA would the 15.56 i am getting on the meter be under the max?

 

how old are the batterys? i think i would get them load tested if you havent already. and running a battery all the way dead can realy reduce its life expectancy. also i would check for corrosion on your starter cables, they could cause slow cranking even if the batterys are fully charged

 

Unfortunately because it is Sunday I could not find a store open that sells the load testers or a garage open to test them for me. I installed the starter about 4 months ago and when I did I cleaned all the connections at the stater. As far as the age of the batteries they came with the truck when I got it about a year ago so I dont know. I did go and get some brand new batteries today and there is a big diff in how fast the stater turns. It may have something to do with the fact that the old batteries had a CCA of 650 and the new ones are 850 CCA. And or the old ones were just on there way out. Right now I am just going to hope and pray I dint just **** away $200.00 on new ones when the problem is a parasitic draw because I goofed when I installed my new radio or something else went south and is sucking the life out of my batteries.

Thanks

 

If the 15 milliamps (or 0.015 amps) draw was a good reading, it would take about a year to run down the batteries. I recollect the batteries are good for about 80 amp-hours each... that's about 160 amp-hours total. Divide by 0.015 amps, and you get 10,667 hours... which is over 400 days. So if 15 milliamps was a good reading, you don't have a current leak problem.

When I got my 97, it had very tired batteries. Did not hold charge well, and often needed lengthy external charge to start. But a day or two after charging (or driving), they would be run down again and starting was questionable. New batteries solved the problem.

I also had the alternator go bad. First symptom was the volt gage... it fluctuated between battery voltage and charging voltage. Finally sat on battery voltage... and the truck started and ran well for day or two. Finally noticed the headlights were really dim. It started and ran well until the solenoid started clicking on a start. Luckily, that was in the parking lot of an Autozone, with the new alternator just installed. Quick jump from a passer-by, and all was well.

Your symptoms do not sound like alternator... sounds like you've got a large current drain (runs down charged batteries overnight) or tired batteries (won't hold charge). If it was the alternator, you could charge up the batteries, leave the truck sit a few days, and it would still start up.

The good alternator check is to measure voltage with truck stopped, and then running. If the alternator is good, the running voltage will be a volt or two higher.

Here's hoping the new batteries solved your problem.

 

Checked the alternator the way you suggested. 12.5 stopped and 14 idling. It dose look like it was just old batteries on there way out but it had to happen right after I installed a new radio so I got nervous that I screwed up. And the pulsing test light is a mystery to me. The mA reading should be good i did it about 5 times and always came up with the same reading. Thanks for the help.

 

The bright test light made me believe you have too much of a draw or you left the door open.

The repair manual says you only need to wait for a few minutes before doing an amp draw test...not hours or overnight. If the test light is very dim then you don't have a huge amp draw. Like paddler says, It would take thousands of hours before the batteries to die from a 15-50 mA draw.

Just use the test lamp method...it's a little bit more reliable unless you trust your VOM. Cheap digital amp meters can be confusing and the read-outs are mostly inaccurate. Same with the analog style not very accurate in the mA readout.

 

And whats worse about the meters I have is they are both made by Radio Shack. And from past experience I can tell you Radio Shack is not that great.
Well anyway it looks like everything will be ok so thanks for all the help.

Latter

 

meters are pretty hard to screw up, though a cheepo might die quicker from an overload.
So dont frett your radio shickt meter to much. =)

Yea, anything that will hold a charge should discharge after a few mins. Batteries are the only thing that wont discharge very easily next to a capacitor.
Hours is just un-nessary.

That extra strain you put on the batteries from the stereo mighta gave the final out for them. =\ Bummer deal.