[DeTomaso] Battery Power Loss

[doug351c]

Sean,

Set your multimeter to its current reading mode and start out using it's
highest Amps scale or you may blow its internal current fuse.  Disconnect
the negative battery cable and connect your multimeter's leads between the
just removed negative battery cable and the battery's negative terminal.
Then get into the car with the door closed (as Mike suggests) and pull the
fuses one by one.

Doug Braun

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of sean mundy
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 2:35 PM
To: mikeldrew at aol.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Battery Power Loss



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
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