correct me if im wrong but if you remove the neg battery cable and hook a light tester to the neg cable then to the battery, the light should be off with the car off and doors closed, is this a good way of testing or am i doing this wrong?


anyway i did that and pulled each fuse one by one and the tester stays on, right now there are no fuses in the block. where is my power draw coming from? any ideas or tips would help, every day or so i try to start the car and battery is dead from sitting over night.

 

Considering the age of our cars, it's not neccessarily true. Often times items have been added that tap off the battery ahead of the fuse block, and can still draw power. You still have the alternator and regulator in the system also when the neg. is removed, and if a diode is shorted, this can cause the draw, and also the drain when parked.
I'd disconnect hot wire at the alternator also and see if the test light goes off. Then if that doesn't do it start checking under the dash for inline fuse holders that you can open and see if the load is there.

 

ok i went out and pulled the hot from the alternator and the light stayed on, but then i pulled the white connector coming off the top of the alternator then the light went out. should it of done that? do i have a problem there?


also thanks for the help

 

those wires are switched at the ignition to activate the field on the gm integral alternator maybe a switch problem.... out of adjustment maybe?

 

The heavy red on that plug is not switched. It is direct to Batt.

 

^ Right. The red exciter wire on the plug connects further down the line to the hot battery lead that's connected to the back of the alternator. The brown wire on the plug goes to your battery gauge/idiot light. You might want to isolate those two wires on the plug, trying one at a time, to determine which is causing the draw.

 

Should be two wires on that plug. They can be released from the plug with a paper clip slid in from the back and then pull the wires out. Be sure to note which wire goes to which side of the plug, then touch each to the correct terminal and see which one causes the load. Might be the regulator, or the gauge that's got a problem.

 

^ Gee, that's a great idea, wish I had thought of that! lol

 

Just wanted to be sure he kept the wires in the right order, and knew how to release them from the plug.

 

I use an itty-bitty screwdriver to release the wires from the plug, never tried a paper clip.