battery drain

[tdag]

1982 camaro 305 battery keeps draining. Once I jump it, it's ok., when I park it for the night i have to jump it in the morning. Can anyone tell me how to test for a drain on the electrical system. thanks

[chevy_chic20041]

Originally Posted by tdag

1982 camaro 305 battery keeps draining. Once I jump it, it's ok., when I park it for the night i have to jump it in the morning. Can anyone tell me how to test for a drain on the electrical system. thanks

have u had the alternator tested??

[89IROC&RS]

youre trying to test for a paracitic draw on the system. basicly you have to hook a multimeter in parralell to the negative battery cable. then disconnect the cable from the battery so that the drain is going through the multimeter. Make sure the car has been sitting for a while and the meter has dropped to its lowest setting. Say for instance when you first hook it up and disconnect the cable, it will read 150 milliamps, when it drops to 8 milliamps you know youre fine. if it only drops to say 40 milliamps, you know you have a draw. go to the fuse block and start pulling fuses one at a time. when you pull a fuse and the draw drops you know thats the problem circuit and you need to find the short.