Electrical Issues..

[daleearnhardt01]

Went out to my 98 today and the battery was stone dead, got it jumped and alt is charging, drove it around a while and it kept on starting up the rest of the day. Check to make sure nothing was left on, didnt find anything. Took a testlight and checked for a draw and found one but pulled every fuse without making that light cut off except the battery fuse which should make the light go off I assume. I need to get a multimeter to check to see how much current is actually being drawn but the fact that pulling fuses didnt do anything really confuses me. Ive heard that a bad diode bridge in the alt can cause a draw while the vehicle is off. Anyway for me to test this? Its a alt from autozone so I might just replace it since it would be free and it would take about 5 min to do. Thought maybe the cold killed the battery but it shouldnt, its only a year old as is the alternator....

 

[ryan22re]

Disconnect the alternator. If it is the problem, the drain will be gone. If you find a multimeter, a 55-65 milliamp battery drain will kill a decent battery in roughly 10-12 hours. Don't forget that your truck may not power down the various control modules for up to 10 minutes after key off, door opening etc.

 

[83ZZ502_Jimmy]

On a slightly related note, one of us (not to name names, josh) left the dome light in the 95 on.. Asked me if I have had battery issues... A jump fixed it.

But yours, like said wait the 10 minutes for all modules to "shut down" and do the multimeter check. You may also want to make sure all your cables/terminals are clean. Check the grounds again too.

Lemme know if I can help.
John