Ree,
As far as your "organised trouble shooting" goes, if you don't have one
already, get yourself a cheap multi-meter from your local electronics shop.
Disconnect one end of the battery, and connect your meter, in "Ammeter" mode,
between the battery and the battery terminal. That will show you how much
current is currently being drawn from the battery. Then, simply disconnect
wires one by one until the current reduces (hopefully to zero, because
otherwise you've got more than one thing draining your battery!) Once you've
done that, reconnect the wire, trace it to some point either up or down the
circuit, disconnect, and repeat until you've figured out where your short is.
Have fun!!!!
Dean
-------------
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 10:42:27 -0500
From: "Ree Gurley" <reegurley@mindspring.com>
Subject: Fw: Squawking Engine
I wrote:
> Addressed Challenge #1: Battery Completely Dead After Sitting A Day.
> Fritzy switch to the trunk/boot light - disconnected light for now.
Doug responded:
> If the battery dies after only one day of running such a small light, it
> must be almost gone.
Quite likely, though in retrospect, it was more like a day-and-a-half or two
days. Anyway, the trunk/boot light is apparently NOT the main culprit; this
morning the battery is again half-dead even though the trunk/boot light was
off. Because the fully charged battery will maintain 12.5 V indefinitely
while sitting on the work-bench, but will lose voltage while installed in
the car, it is apparent I'll have to do some organized trouble-shooting.
I'm all for getting a new battery - I'm getting low specific gravity
readings on the present one (though my SG tester itself is suspect) - plus
I want to switch to side-terminals anyway), but feel I should first find out
where the juice is disappearing to before putting in a new battery.
On checking the water-pump, I stupidly neglected to turn it by hand & check
for roughness when I had the belts off. Thanks for the reminder, Doug; I'll
do that during my next attack on the Spit.
Ree G. in Silver Spring,MD - 78 Spit 73070U O driver - 77 Spit 62988U
wip
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