Re: Severe Battery Drain
Michael,
You are correct that you have ruled out the starter. Now the test is to find all of the things that are powered without fuses.
I have the 1953-1972 Corvette Electrical Wiring Diagrams available from the NCRS Online Store (shameless plug).
The best that I can tell is that there is a connection to the fuse block between the battery and the starter motor. Your battery is behind the drivers seat unlike my '62 that is right beside the starter.
How are you measuring the amperage draw? Do you happen to have a clamp on DC Amprobe? This is an extremely handy tool but not inexpensive. It has a clamping jaw that wraps around the wire and reads the current flowing through the wire. The AC versions have been around for years and aren't all that expensive but the DC versions are not as common and a little more expensive.
If you are using the car's ammeter to read the current draw it is going to be hard to isolate.
Another good way would be to disconnect items one at a time and measure the Voltage from your battery to the item. If you disconnect the power wire (10 gauge red) from your horn relay for instance and measure the voltage from the wire to the terminal you took it off of it should not have any voltage, that terminal should be open until you close the relay with your horn button. If it shows 12 volts or so then you have found your short circuit to ground. It looks like the 10 gauge red also goes to your voltage regulator as a 20 gauge orange wire and to your alternator as the 10 gauge red wire. Test those two things the same way. That looks like about all that is all of the circuits that are unfused unless someone else knows of something that is powered key off and not fused.
Michael,
You are correct that you have ruled out the starter. Now the test is to find all of the things that are powered without fuses.
I have the 1953-1972 Corvette Electrical Wiring Diagrams available from the NCRS Online Store (shameless plug).
The best that I can tell is that there is a connection to the fuse block between the battery and the starter motor. Your battery is behind the drivers seat unlike my '62 that is right beside the starter.
How are you measuring the amperage draw? Do you happen to have a clamp on DC Amprobe? This is an extremely handy tool but not inexpensive. It has a clamping jaw that wraps around the wire and reads the current flowing through the wire. The AC versions have been around for years and aren't all that expensive but the DC versions are not as common and a little more expensive.
If you are using the car's ammeter to read the current draw it is going to be hard to isolate.
Another good way would be to disconnect items one at a time and measure the Voltage from your battery to the item. If you disconnect the power wire (10 gauge red) from your horn relay for instance and measure the voltage from the wire to the terminal you took it off of it should not have any voltage, that terminal should be open until you close the relay with your horn button. If it shows 12 volts or so then you have found your short circuit to ground. It looks like the 10 gauge red also goes to your voltage regulator as a 20 gauge orange wire and to your alternator as the 10 gauge red wire. Test those two things the same way. That looks like about all that is all of the circuits that are unfused unless someone else knows of something that is powered key off and not fused.
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