Draining the battery + Troubleshooting

[BigAl]

I have recently ran into a small problem of my KT3 snowcat draining the battery when it sits a couple days . I really don't want to put in a battery shutoff switch but actually find the drain problem .I guess this procedure can be used for any car , truck , or a snowcat in my case that you suspect a problem and it is not the battery itself going bad . What I do to start with is take off the positive cable and then use my meter to connect between the battery cable and the + post of the battery . It will give me a readout number in amps of the drain . it should read zero .
In my case everything should be dead when the key is in the off position . Then I disconnect one fuse (Lights, Dome lite switch , ignition , etc ) at a time until the meter reads zero .

 

[mla2ofus]

Yer on the right track, Al. If you don't find the drain it could possibly be an internal short in the batt.
Mike

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

Allen I use a test light that way I can see it at a distance light on you have a draw light off no draw

 

[300 H and H]

In a car of mine's case Allen the trouble was a screw that held on the rear deck spoiler was long enough it pinched the wires to the trunk lamp. Took me a while to find, untill I realized it was on an unswitched circut. Only the head lights and dome lights, trunk lamps were unswitched. Be sure you understand the wiring, and if there are unswitched circuts to be delt with...

That said it could very well be your battery. I have had my share of batteries that died prematurely... Especially those hardly used.

Regards, Kirk

 

[donald73d]

If you remove either battery cable and just lightly touch it back you may hear a spark and at night see a spark. That should tell you if its a battery going bad or a parasitic drain.

Having the battery tested is also a good idea. Either a load test (carbon pile load tester) or a conductive test Midtronics tester).

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

the spark test is not a good test as capacitors in modern computers and alternators will cause a spark if they discharge. you will see this with a test light the light comes on strong than slowly dims to nothing.