[T3] Draw on battery.

[dlstiefel]

On 2016-06-23 17:43, Jim Adney wrote:
> On 23 Jun 2016 at 11:07, dlstiefel wrote:
> 
>> When I got home I didn't shut it off and hooked up the DVOM to the
>> battery and got about 14.3 volts. Then I shut the engine off the volts
>> dropped down to about 13.5.
> 
> That sounds just about perfect.
> 
>> I then took the ground off cable the battery put one lead on the
>> ground cable and the other on the negative post on the battery. The 
>> DVOM
>> red 12.5 volts.
> 
> At this point, as William said, you should be trying to read current.
> The current you read should be the same, if you break the ground link
> or the hot link, but breaking the ground side is MUCH safer.
> 
> 
>> I started pulling the fuses one by one look at the
>> reading then put the fuse back in. No change on any fuse. I then
>> unhooked the wire from the positive side of the battery to the voltage
>> regulator and it dropped close to 0. So I thought OK it's the 
>> regulator.
> 
> That's not really much of a test.

OK give me 30 lashes for that one LOL but in my defense it has helped my 
find where the battery draws on a car was for many years. However it 
dose seem more thorough to measure amps so you got me there. Like I told 
William I will try it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

> With the DVM still reading current
> in the ground link, leave the wire from the + post to the VR in place
> and pull off the wire that leads from the VR to the rest of the car.
> 
> If the current in the DVM goes to zero, the leak is somewhere in the
> car. (Not everything is fused.)

Yes I know that's why I moved on to the regulator after that just 
eliminating what I considered the easy stuff first.

> If the current still doesn't go to zero, there's a problem in the VR.
OK like I told William I will look at the amps next.
> 
>> By the way I just put this regulator on the car back during the big
>> restoration. It's one of those newer compact solid state ones that 
>> Bosch
>> makes now.
> 
> It's always possible that something has gone wrong inside the VR. I
> don't know what's in there either. If you're seeing more than 20 mA
> of drain current just into the VR, my guess is that that's wrong.
> It's possible that they all draw 5-10 mA even when off, but that
> would surprise me, and that amount of drain is so little that you'd
> never notice it.
> 
> I don't have any personal experience with the new SS VRs. I'll be
> producing my own refurbished old style Bosch boxes with solid state
> innards by the end of the year. Versions available for either 6 or 12
> V. Should mean the last VR you should ever buy.  ;-)

Will Look forward to that Jim. But in the mean time if the VR dose turn 
up bad I will just have to get another one like I have now.

Dennis