Battery draining overnight

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moparfanatic56

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Ok my battery keeps draining overnight on my 72 dart. I did the light test by removing the battery cable from the neg post and used the test light between the post and the cable and the light came on meaning I have an open circuit. I then proceeded to do the fuse test with the light and there was only one fuse that the light went out on and I believe it was the dome light all the rest the test light stayed on. I have all new wiring from m&h along with a new circuit board so what could be going on. Do I have a ground issue or am i going to be chasing gremlins.
 
There are no easy answers. If you think it is the dome circuit, chase it down. Start by making certain the vehicle does not have a trunk light stuck on, underhood lamp or the glove box lamp. If you can kill it by removing fuses, look up in the service manual to find a list of items on that particular fuse. One you for certain know what circuit or fuse that it's on, you can go from there

There are "tricky" ones, AKA an alternator can develop leaky diodes, and it is connected at all times and not fused. So to "catch" it as a leak, you just have to unhook the charge wire and see fi the load goes away

The OEM radio is a rare possibility, but could happen, and ANY modern stereo is a possibility due to problems in the memory "keep alive circuit, OR THE AUDIO OUTPUT transistors, which are connected all the time
 
trapster said:
Check your alternator could have a bad diode.
Click to expand...
Yup, disconnect the battery wire (the one that's secured with a nut) from the alternator & see if the battery still goes dead... There are lots of ways to test but that's about as easy & accurate as it gets...
 
moparfanatic56 said:
I did the light test by removing the battery cable from the neg post and used the test light between the post and the cable and the light came on meaning I have an open circuit
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Meaning you have a closed cir somewhere.

Open cir does not conduct electricity

Be sure you closed your doors before that test.

What ignition system do you have?

The wiring harnesses you used are they OEM type or " universal"?

Are you sure the key is in the off position? Some times a key / lock gets so worn that you can remove the key in other than the off position.

If you wired the field to a full time on wire that would drain the batt fast.
 
Check and see if there is an updated to the wiring diagram from M&H. There was one for the Painless mopar kit, without the update it would kill a battery in a day or 2.
 
moparfanatic56 said:
Ok my battery keeps draining overnight on my 72 dart. I did the light test by removing the battery cable from the neg post and used the test light between the post and the cable and the light came on meaning I have an open circuit. I then proceeded to do the fuse test with the light and there was only one fuse that the light went out on and I believe it was the dome light all the rest the test light stayed on. I have all new wiring from m&h along with a new circuit board so what could be going on. Do I have a ground issue or am i going to be chasing gremlins.
Click to expand...
Unplug your headlight switch while you have your test light hooked up.
 
Dana67Dart said:
Meaning you have a closed cir somewhere.

Open cir does not conduct electricity

Be sure you closed your doors before that test.

What ignition system do you have? MSD 6AL
Click to expand...
Dana67Dart said:
The wiring harnesses you used are they OEM type or " universal"? OEM type from m&h

Are you sure the key is in the off position? Some times a key / lock gets so worn that you can remove the key in other than the off position. New

If you wired the field to a full time on wire that would drain the batt fast.
Click to expand...
 
1WildRT said:
Yup, disconnect the battery wire (the one that's secured with a nut) from the alternator & see if the battery still goes dead... There are lots of ways to test but that's about as easy & accurate as it gets...
Click to expand...
I did try the remove the wire and use the test light from the neg cable to the alt wire stud and no light. I will try this method also
 
You said 'fuse' for the dome light. As mentioned, make sure the doors are closed, BUT, there's a helluva lot more on that circuit than just the dome light.

Set up your test light between ground and battery negative, but unplug the three connectors at the bulkhead. If the light goes out, plug in each one, one at a time. If light goes on, you know it's in one of those three, and they're grouped, so it will help you isolate the issue. I like this better than the fusebox, because it's 'narrower' in focus. THEN you can use the wiring diagram to see what's affected.

Like Dana said above, if each fuse causes the light on, disconnect the ignition switch, and see what happens.

ETA Dome lamp goes through the instrument panel harness.
 
found the problem apparently my trunk light socket must be bad, I forgot that I had left the bulb in the socket because it wasn't coming on thinking the switch was bad. I removed the bulb and the test light went out on the cable to post test, put the bulb back in the test light comes on.
Thanks to everyone for their help and happy as hell it was something simple
 
ODD, I did NOT see GREAT BIG RED PRINT from "ZED EL" land in here helping with this problem!!!!
 
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