electrical gremlins

[k20]

Ok guys, I been trying to find this drain on my battery. For the most part I have it setup fairly simply, I have dual batteries and it has been draining both, they are simply hooked together doubling capacity. Well, I disconnected them from each other and the truck battery (stock location & wiring) has been drained down.

The other is in the aux location and it has a bunch of my 'goodies' hooked to it. It is staying charged. So I have been trying to find the drain, and no matter what fuse I pull the amp draw on the batt stays the same, IIRC (did this a few days ago) its 33mA, which doesnt sound like much, but it drains down my yellowtop optima in a week. I have even switched the batteries to make sure it isnt a battery problem and the problem stays on the truck side.

AND FINALLY TO THE QUESTION OF THE DAY, I went out and was planning to completely cut off the cab feed and try to reverse engineer and find the draw. Problem is, the cab wont die! I have unhooked all of the wires going to the distribution block on the firewall (stock block & wiring here) and the cab still has power.....Am I forgetting something since I havent messed with this truck in awhile? Is there another cab feed besides the junction block on the firewall or is the damn thing drawing out of something else, killing my battery?

Thanks guys.

 

[k20]

alrighty fellers, remembered another piece to this puzzle. When I redid a bunch of stuff I replaced all of the fusible links w/ fuse holders b/c of the condition of the fusible links. Anyway, the wire that runs from the starter up to the junction block we will call X and another that runs up (red wire) but cant tell where it goes we will call Z.

If I pull the fuse on X there is no change in the draw, still at 33ma. If I pull the fuse on Z & X the draw goes to 0. Then when I reinstall X it goes to 29ma. Put Z back in, goes to 33, pull Z stays at 33......WTF.....Also from what I can tell X controls the radio, ignition, fuel pump, HVAC, etc. Z controls the ctsy lights, and nothing else I can find.....wtf again

 

[Fordum]

OK, I am writing this with a blood pressure of 65/30, so I may be a little fuzzy headed. But I'll give it my best shot.

Your load is connected to both z and x. One fires the load, once fired it stays on until you kill all power.
I think.
Wild Ass Guess, its your radio.

Most of them have two power inputs. One from the battery that is on all the time. It is a very tiny load, that maintains the memory for your fave freqs.
The other one, from the ignition is the main power.

Not guaranteed, but is one of the few things that uses two power inputs.
If you have any kind of external unit to the radio, it may be getting triggered. Amp, CD changer, etc.

In fact, something way back in my fuzzy head makes me think I saw it once before when the keep alive wire and the power wire was reversed. Not sure of that.

There is something else I see from your x and z description, but I just can't pull it out.

Let me get some sleep, and hopefully get some more pressure, and I will try again tomorrow evening.

 

[zombie1969]

OK, I am writing this with a blood pressure of 65/30, so I may be a little fuzzy headed. But I'll give it my best shot.

Your load is connected to both z and x. One fires the load, once fired it stays on until you kill all power.
I think.
Wild Ass Guess, its your radio.

Most of them have two power inputs. One from the battery that is on all the time. It is a very tiny load, that maintains the memory for your fave freqs.
The other one, from the ignition is the main power.

Not guaranteed, but is one of the few things that uses two power inputs.
If you have any kind of external unit to the radio, it may be getting triggered. Amp, CD changer, etc.

In fact, something way back in my fuzzy head makes me think I saw it once before when the keep alive wire and the power wire was reversed. Not sure of that.

There is something else I see from your x and z description, but I just can't pull it out.

Let me get some sleep, and hopefully get some more pressure, and I will try again tomorrow evening.

Dito. 33ma is nothing but will drain the bats over a long period.Have your bats checked to make sure there good.If its sitting disconect the bats or the drain.

 

[badmix]

I chased 2 Parasitic draws:

If you have a courtesy light under the dash, it is tied into the rest of the lights. I had a problem with draw and found it to be that light. I yanked that bulb and it fixed the draw, Ive since replaced that whole socket with LED.

Also, I had another draw on my system. Found out it was my TACH, Even with the TACH wired hot, it put a draw on my system, I switched the tach to a KEY ON circuit and I can now let the truck sit for week or two and itll fire up.

*Ive got dual battery setup, im running an isolator and use my 2nd battery as back. I did this for the sole reason you didnt, I didnt want a draw killing both batteries. So with the way the isolator works, I will charge both batteries, but nothing is being drawn on the 2nd battery, but I can flip a switch and combine the batteries for extra power. I didnt want to accidentally have a draw or leave something on and kill both batteries. Im running yellow top and red tops.