Battery Draw Question with key Off

[Peter]

I had to remove the "one" fuse for the radio,cig lighter,clock and dome light ..the parisitic draw is coming from behind the dash (clock???)..what could possibly be going on with the dash that could draw enough juice from the battery every 2 days to prevent the car from starting???

[Doug]

Peter, I have noticed the same issue only recently to have arisen because there is a wire supplying some of your aforementioned circuits that has been pulled clear when I pulled all the interior trim to repair the floors. I had previously seen the battery draw down in maybe 3 weeks of sitting. There were no obvious lights on or radio. I had suspected a weak battery, a leaking diode on the alternator rectifier but I am stumped by this one. I now have the clock and radio circuit off but still there is a draw there that I can not detect the source of. I suspect that there is a relay energised by some stray circulation due to a bad ground somewhere. I hate the obvious fix which is to put a battery disconnect switch in series with one of the battery terminals for when the car sits for more than a day or two. Anyone else have a suggestion?

[macka]

Did you guys check the power to each of those parts for faults? I had a bad constant in the radio, cut and splice and it was fixed

[Peter]

I disconnected the neg terminal from the battery and hooked up a test light..with the key completely "off" the light was very bright...pulling the fuse for the radio, cig lit, dome lite, dash clock turned  the test light off..after removing the radio ,dome lite bulb, and disconnecting the wire from the cig lit. ... I then went ahead and installed the fuse back in only to see the test light come on once again..the only thing left is the clock to disconnect..hard to understand how the clock and whatever is behind in the dash could be drawing that much power to drain the battery...maybe from the dash the circuit goes to the alternator, and there be the problem..just a guess here

[Op-Ivy]

Use a multimeter. That way you can get a precise reading. The way you are doing it is correct but with a multimeter set it to read amps, then connect one end to the negative terminal on the battery and the other on the ground cable end.

25-30 miliamps is considered a normal draw on your battery. More than that and you have a parasitic draw.

I had one once. Turns out it was the way I had my radio wired.   

[Peter]

Use a multimeter. That way you can get a precise reading. The way you are doing it is correct but with a multimeter set it to read amps, then connect one end to the negative terminal on the battery and the other on the ground cable end.

25-30 miliamps is considered a normal draw on your battery. More than that and you have a parasitic draw.

I had one once. Turns out it was the way I had my radio wired.  

I will have to get a multi-meter that will read AMPs...the test light makes it simple..either I see the draw thru the brightness of the bulb or I don't see it...useing the votage meter when set on volts only confuses since it only shows the voltage but not the Draw...at least this morning my battery is ready to go since leaving out the fuse ..

[Peter]

I did isolate the alternator from the system by disconnecting all the wires from it..installed the fuse  ..connected the test light only to see the "draw" again..problem is somwhere in the cluster / clock connection..at the moment I can't use the radio, but probably will run a new wire to it connected to a power switch that I can turn off/on manually...I have a set-up like that for my rad fan