31 vicky and Rusty are correct. Most of the time a light that won't get turned off causes a weak battery. The voltage regulator, alternator/ with reg.,etc. is probably causing your problem. Pull the fuses one at a time, unplug the big stuff, if the light doesn't go out start taking the fusable links loose from the solinoid one at a time. When the light go's out look at all the circuits on that fuse. It could be anything, but hooking up the test light is the best and cheapest way to not guess.
Here's another way to narrow things down some. Whatever is draining your battery will be warm, but that depends on how long it takes to drain. What I mean is let's say your battery goes dead in 12 hrs. That will make heat, more heat than a 2 day drain but not as much as a 6 hr drain. What's perplexing are the strange intermittent draws. The ones that are there then not. Or when two related things are independently screwed up indifferent ways. For example a horn relay that sticks when triggered but releases when the power is disconnected attached to inoperative horns. You'll not find that with any meter or light but it will be the only thing that's warmer than everything else and sure as shit drains the battery. Pretty rare but it does happen.
Do what aw150 says. Make sure the battery is fully charged, load test it! Check and clean all battery connections as needed.
Here's a good one. Do you have your horns hooked up and working? If not I have had the horn ring contact keep the horn relay actuated, and consequently dead battree.
Pull the wire off the back of the Alternator/ Generator overnight and see if it discharges overnight. I was chasing my tail on a 56 chevy on a similar problem. It had a valve radio that was wired in so it would go with the ignition off. The radio was left on with the volume down low so I couldn't hear it. These old radios can drain a new battery overnight.
Does it still have a generator or has it been converted to alternator? If it now has an alternator a shorted diode will drain the battery.
Well by dumb luck , I broke the adjusting bolt in the alt , so I just bought a new one and low and behold , fixed my problem . That was easy Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Do the cars have trunk lights, under hood lights, glove compartment lights? Lighted ash trays, are the radios fully off? I had a car that would always die if I did not drive it every day. Turned out that neither the glove compartment light nor the trunk light went of when the lids were closed. The two lamps were enough to drain the battery if the car sat for 20 hours or so. Both the switches had backed out of their mounts and did not travel far enough to break the circuits.
could be like me and turn the key all the way to the left instead of in the center and kill the battery everynight figure it out on your own and still feel like a tard lol. yeah my first old car thats on the road.
I will keep you up to date on other car when I get a chance to check it , I hoping its the same issue , but we will see Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The Jalopy Journal
