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Old 07-23-2012   #16
Paul Workman
 
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Squires (near Ava MO in the Mark Twain N'tl Forest) - Missouri
Posts: 6,466
Default Re: Electrical Short.

Quote:
Originally Posted by scottfab View Post
Point of clarification: If you see ".0256" that's 25.6ma which is not a big deal. If you did a typo and it truly is 0.256 (256ma) and is steady you do have a heavy draw. Time to leave the meter connected that way and start disconnecting stuff until you find the culprit. Do you have any aftermarket electrical stuff?
Good catch, Scott.

Robert: Some meters will auto-range to read in mA directly. How-some-ever, if your meter scale is reading Amperes (not mA), then move the decimal 3 places to the right to convert to mA.

Example: 0.0256A (as Scott points out) becomes 25.6mA - which is well under the GM threshold of 50mA where concern for battery drain comes into play (and is pretty much at the top of the statistical bell curve for "key off" or "keep alive" current draw).

If it is higher than 50mA, leave the meter connected and start pulling fuses, one at a time while looking for a sudden drop in current draw to isolate the circuit(s) with the load. Refer to the FSM to futher isolate the various components that share that fuse.

BTW! What does the voltage across the battery do when you connect your battery charger? It sould jump up a few tenths. (Mine is on a Battery Tender. I just disconnected the BT and measured the (surface charge) voltage, and it was 13.36. Then, reconnecting the charger the voltage bumped up to 13.8. The light on the BT is "GREEN" (indicating fully charged).

My point is, to check the BT while connected to the battery to see if it is in fact working. Just a thought.

Hope this helps.

P.
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