[alfa] QV Battery Drain

[Steve & Zita Waclo <z_waclo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello:

Have been lurking in the shadows since joining the
group but thought it may be time to stop bugging Bob
Rand all the time and tap into the collective
consciousness. Appears to be a wealth of knowledge and
information available. 

Just obtained an '87 QV a few weeks back and the issue
of the day involves a battery that won't hold a charge
more than about 10 days. It was installed 9/03. The
weather is a bit nasty and I'm waiting for some parts
and have been doing a lot of cleaning and inspecting,
so the car has not been getting much run time. During
infrequent road trips, the voltmeter takes a "key on"
set at about 12 volts, then rises to perhaps 13V when
the engine starts. When I re-charged the battery
yesterday (and checked electrolyte levels - one cell
needed distilled water), I noticed that re-attaching
the positive terminal resulted in a small spark that
may exceed the 20ma parasitic drain my Alfa TSB's
refer to. My digital ammeter only goes to 20ma so I
don't want to series it into the circuit for testing
purposes. Plan to start de-bugging by pulling all
fuses and watching for the spark to go away (I hope),
then start putting them back in on at a time.

Would appreciate any ideas on this situation and
alternative methods of isolating the mystery load...if
it even exists. Maybe 20ma makes a visible spark, but
I think not.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Steve Waclo
Carson City, NV

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided