Re: Electric drain mystery/problem

[Daniel Youngquist <dany@domain.elided>]

On Thu, 19 Feb 1998 ROBERT.BLAIR1@domain.elided wrote:

> OK, it's not a dead short, what other kind of short is there?  I see
> the same symptoms as Ed. 
> Enlighten me...

That would be a _live_ short...  The kind that gets up and goes to a
different spot in your rig when you're half way through diagnosing it.
:)

My neighbor had a battery drain problem in his old Chebby pickup
recently.  He knows nothing about electricity so asked me to take a look
at it.  Turned out to be a bad (external) voltage regulator.  The relay
in the regulator was staying powered up all the time and drawing enough
current to drain his battery overnight.

I'm not sure a drain slow enough to drain the battery in 3 days will
create any visible spark when you disconnect/connect the battery or
fuses; you'll probably need an ammeter.  A test light might work, but
you can get a cheap multimeter for $10 and they're very useful to have
around.

Daniel Youngquist / dany@domain.elided / 541-688-9263 // VISA & MasterCard
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