Roger, you are a wealth of knowledge. It hasn't gone unnoticed, I'll be ordering a set of disco's from you in the near future.

Anyway, I have made some strides.

1st, I tested my fuses in my digital meter for continuity. Both the fuse in the meter and the spare(Which I believe I swapped out previously) were blown. So, that explains the no reading.

I am now trusting, old reliable.

The Micronta meter reads 500ma. So, I pull a few wires off of the main positive terminal. I narrowed it down to 500ma on 2 sources.

1st was from my auxilary block. I pulle fuses until I narrowed it down to my Cobra cb. Not sure what's wrong there, but AT least I can easily trace those wires. I had both the red and orange wires running to the 7.5a fuse. I tried running only 1 or the other and both ways there is the 500ma draw.....with the unit off, mind you. Not sure what's up there.

Next, I narrowed it down to the 80A GLOW AM1 fuse. Here's where I get the Boner award:



That fuse wouldn't pull out like my 30 and 40 amp fuses. So, I give it a tug, no go. Surely this is the cause of the draw, it's shorted and welded to the terminals. So, I keep tugging and break it to pieces.

FInally, my brains kick in, I flip over the fuse block and learn that it's bolted in. Lesson learn. ARGGG

I disconnected the lead from the 80 amp fuse and tested from that point. Still has an 500ma draw.

This wire runs into the main harness. From my Chilton's guide Diagram, it looks like it goes to the heater. Does it go anywhere else? Not sure where I should check. I'm going to pull more fuses tomorrow. It was getting dark and my truck is facing the wrong way in the garage.

Thanks for all the help.

 

Wouldn't that be nice. hahaha. 2 blown fuses here!

 

Not sure on the CB, might be something you need to put on a switched 12V source. My old AM/FM/CB radio was like that. If connected to constant 12V, it pulled a fair amount of current when off (modern electronics really never turns all the way off), so it needed to be on switched 12V.

The other drain might be something like a relay that is not turning off.

 

Where can I find a schematic for that circuit? I'm not the best at reading auto schematics. As far as I could tell, it's just the heater on that circuit, but my suspicion tells me it's got more than just that on there.

 

A Factory Service Manual would be the best option:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/FSM.shtml

http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showfl...5&o=14&fpart=1

 

Well, I've dug in a bit more.

I've determined that the draw is coming from The 80amp fuse via the 40amp fuse (AM1 also)

When I disconnected the wires from the 80 amp fuse, there was a large white wire and another ring clamp with two smaller red wires. I can fins continuity between these. Not sure if that is desirable. I would think not.

I pulled all the fuses, even the ones behind the glove box and there is still continuity between these two points. I followed and stripped the lom that goes across the front clip behind the radiator. No shorts visible. I unhooked all underhood components on that side of the harness. Still have continuity.

The loom also goes through the firewall, so that is my next quest. I have a feeling something behind the dash shorted. My electrical is all in good shape visually, so I'm not sure what/how this went down.

 

I narrowed the draw down to 3 sources:

1: CB as mentioned earlier. I can handle this

2: Doem light. I tried rewiring it with a different switch after the stocker failed. I can handle this fix.

3: 14P plug on CPU

What is causing 14P to cause such a draw? Is my cpu possibly toast? Truck ran fine. Any ideas what 14P controls or where to look?

 

I have the early 22RE ECU pinouts on the web page below:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...roubleshooting

 

Thanks Roger, that is essentially what I was looking for, but other than the Batt (Battery, I assume) and the 4WD light, I haven't a clue what those other abbreviations are.

 

Links to on-line Factory Service Manual information

 

Ok, I'm thoroughly confused.

I woudl assume taht each draw is different. Some being a small draw and some being much larger.

The following items, when itnroduced to my electrical system peg my meter set to 500ma:

-CB
-Car Alarm
-Dome Light
-ECU 14P
-Cable that goes to the Alternator

2 Questions:

Could all of those massive draws exist and only drain my battery in 3 weeks, not a day?

Is my meter busted?

My digital meter still reads as if nothing is happening. I checked the 500ma 25ov fuse and they look ok. Not sure how to tell when a cermaic fuse blows.

My Micronta meter just pegs out. I figured it was bigger than 500ma, so I set it to 10A amp went to check. Got some smoke rolling out of the meter. Pretty awesome.

I feel like I've been chasing down alot of stuff with 2 bad meters.

 

Oh yeah, I also got my hands on another cpu to see if my cpu was the culprit. I still have the draw when I plug into that cpu.

This is crazy, I live in SoCal. No snow, little rain, and I stay out of the mud.

 

You can try testing the fuse with an ohm meter. If it reads open or infinite resistance, it is blown. For a check on your meters, you could try setting up some sort of test fixture. See if you can pick up something like a 1 watt, 100 ohm resistor and then connect that in series with the meter and put 12 volts across it and see what the current reads. For example, with 12 volts and 100 ohms, you should see 120mA (0.120 amps) on the meter. And you can double check that by measuring the voltage drop across the resistor with the other meter and the work out the current flow. That way you are measuring a known current and can confirm that the meters are working and you are reading them correctly.

 

Cool, that will be a good way to test the meters. Asfar as the digitial, the fuses are blown as per the suggested test.

I think I might be throwing in the D.I.Y. towel. I have this thing stripped down and it jsut ain't making sense.

I went and got a new alarm to comapre to the old one. The new one shows the same draw. That's with only 2 wires hooked up (Power and Ground). It can't be standard for alarms to have 500ma draw.

I'm doubting myself and running in circles. Time for a proffessional to take a look.

 

Ok, my brain is spinning.

Dash is still torn out. I took truck to electrical specialist. They "fix" it in 1 hour. I am told I ha d a false ground and that they just needed to tighten the negative terminal.

I get home, pop of the positive and run the meter between. STILL pegged at 500ma. WTF? The electric guy looked at my system and said all was good. I explained that my battery was draining, so I assume he knows what to check.

SO just for the hell of it. I try the test on my prizm. 500ma pegged. I try it on the negative side 500ma pegged.

Is my meter messed up? I cannot get a 20-30ma reading off of eithe rof my cars. I'm losing my mind.

I wnat to be sure there is something worng before I go take it back to the electrical guys.

FUDGE!

 

Try setting up the test resistor circuit and that way you can see if the meter is reading properly.

 

woul I be able to get that resistor at Radio Shack or Fry's?

 

Are you sure you have the meter on the correct setting? If I didn't live so far away, I'd help you out.
It's a bit pricey but this is the meter I use to diagnose electrical problems:
http://us.fluke.com/usen/products/Fl...keUnitedStates

I bought it as a set:
http://us.fluke.com/NR/exeres/5372CA...keUnitedStates

The black connector (common) goes to the NEG terminal, the red connector (A) goes to the NEG battery cable. The dial is set to mA~A.

 

That one looks pretty cool. Discontinued

I am hook mine to the Amp terminal with the red and the neg terminal with the black. I turn the dial to 500ma and PEGGED. My other meter is digital and doesn't have seperate plugs. I put it on the ma setting and I believe I blew 2 fuses.

 

Your digital meter doesn't have "A"? When you hook up the meter you'll get a "spike" because the computers are powering up and it takes some time to steady the reading and for the computers to "sleep".
I work on new cars and some of them have upwards of 45+ computers . That "spike" is what blows the fuse, leaving the door open will also do that. So I start on "A",once it settles out, you can switch the meter to "mA" if needed. If you have a meter without "A", I wouldn't use it for this test.

Can you take a picture of the reading on the meter while it is measuring the draw so I can take a look at it? Or better yet, buy me a round trip ticket so I can come out and have a look at it.