ok my battery is still being drained when it is sitting. i pulled the ctsy fuse and got it down to drawing 29 ma. it drained down last night after sitting for 24hrs. it wasnt completely dead but it wouldnt turn the motor. i hooked my meter up in line and unplugged the hot wire going from battery to alt. and the meter went to .01. just by looking at the wiring diagram it looks like it is wired correctly. it is a 9 month old autozone alt. i know they arent the best but my previous alt died a block from them.


1 wire goes from hot battery to back of alt. it says bat. on the back

1 wire from bat terminal to to the top terminal on the drivers side. it says 1 underneath that terminal.

1 wire from top passenger side terminal to fusebox or gauges. that terminal says 2 -3 underneath it.
i unhooked the gauge wire and meter did not change.

any ideas? alt problem? wired wrong?

no computer on the car. it was a tpi before previous owner changed to carb.

 

Sounds like you have something grounding out and draining the battery. Check for cracked/ broken wires grounding on the body, frame, engine, etc. There really isn't reason why your alt would drain your battery.

Have you installed anything that needed power lately,( radio, lights, gauges, etc.), or moved anything around like wiring?

Like you said Autozone stuff isn't the greatest, but for once I don't think that they are the problem, *** help us all!

 

i havent installed anything. what i cant figure out is that i can unhook everything except the starter and alt wires from the battery including the wire from alt to gauges and it still shows a draw until i take the hot wire to alt. off. when i first got the car i had to replace a lot of wires because some were pieced together with elec. tape i.e. a 5 foot wire was made up of 4 short pieces. its just an ongoing nightmare.

 

In that case maybre your alt is screwed up, have it load tested.

 

There's an easy way to check the alternator.

When the car is running and the headlights are on, measure across the battery.. It should be 14.2 volts.. If it's much less than that, your alternator isn't doing it's job. This could be why your battery is discharging. (The car isn't charging it properly to begin with).

Also.. Batteries can develop internal short circuits and drain themselves. Charge the battery up and leave it disconnected overnight. If it's still loosing charge, then it has an internal short... Replace the battery.