[DeTomaso] Battery Power Loss

[sean mundy]

Thanks Mike, sounds like a good info to start with.  Now I have to figure out how to use a multimeter.
 


From: MikeLDrew at aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 17:11:58 -0500
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Battery Power Loss
To: seanmundy at hotmail.com; detomaso at realbig.com


In a message dated 1/3/11 14 04 9, seanmundy at hotmail.com writes:



Suggestions on how/where do I begin figuring out the exact cause?  Electric stuff scares me.


Frightens me no end, too.  

Bill Taylor will be able to explain this much better than I do.  You can set your multimeter to register the power draw on the battery.  With a helper manning the multimeter, get inside the car and close the door (to extinguish the dome light).  With the key turned off, there should be zero current flowing, but probably, there will be, if you have an electrical 'leak'.  Now, one at a time, remove and replace each fuse.  Eventually, if you're lucky, you'll pull a fuse and the leak will drop to zero.  You've now isolated the fuse that is contributing to the problem.

Then, it's a matter of isolating the various circuits on that fuse to find the culprit.

You may find that the pull-the-fuse trick doesn't work; that would then indicate that the culprit is an unfused thing.  I vaguely recall hearing that the alternator can fritz out and cause such a draw?

Okay, we've rapidly reached the end of my knowledge on this topic!  Somebody else, please weigh in with an actual, informed step-by-step procedure!

Mike