I've been working on finishing the classic for regular usage. Ive gone through two new batteries and they have both drained after 24 hrs. I read on rr's.net that the cd changer drains battery, however I have taken the old stereo and changer out. Any other ideas or issues you know about? Thanks

 

Several ways to hunt down small drains. One is to use a DC clamp on ampmeter, most guys don't have one of these. Another is to use a regular amp meter, with engine off, remove the battery lead. Place a jumper across the meter leads, then use that connection to complete the circuit between the battery and the cable removed. There may be a small spark as the engine computer and other things come back to life. This is the "in-rush" current, and we don't care what that is, but it might be enough to blow the fuse in the meter. Once it is all hooked up, remove the short on the meter leads, and the current will flow thru the meter and you will get a reading in the milliamps range. Normal would be under 100 milliamps (1/10 of an amp). Really higher drains are what you are looking for. You have the a variety of ECU units, the clock, the radio memory, etc. Start unplugging fuses one by one to isolate where the large drain is coming from.

If no meter handy, large drains can be found with a tail light bulb. Again remove the battery lead, then position the bulb so that the filament completes the circuit and is in series with the battery post and cable. Larger drains will make the bulb glow or be bright. Not so good for small drains.

Using a circuit tester or ohm meter requires more work and knowledge of what you are readings, as there are so many things that can make a load normally. But there are also relays that could stick and keep things powered up that shouldn't be. Electronic sensing things, like sub-woofer amps, can also hang up and keep a drain.

The electrical diagrams in the RAVE are pretty handy. Meanwhile, you may need to keep a small charger plugged in to keep from kill the battery, tell your neighbors you are installing the flux capacitor to convert it to a hybrid.