Thought some of you might have a troubleshooting suggestion for me. My charging system was never quite functioning right so I upgraded to a 180A internally regulated alternator. I had recently wired up a pair of KC lights and a Warn winch.
When above idle it reads 13.5 volts which is right or charging. But at idle it reads 11.5 volts Overnight or throughout the day the battery will discharge completely. Dead as a door knob. I'm soon going to rewire it completely but would like to find the culprit in the meantime. Any suggestions on how to find what is draining my battery???

Thanks,

Dev

Most charging systems that I've dealt with usually run at 13.5 - 14 V at idle with no draw. Typical charging voltage should be around 14.4V

I suspect your battery is probably not up to snuff since it is not made to charge and discharge completely so much. Many a time the charging system will fail and you do not know it until the battery finally dies. Then you put in a new alternator and your battery is already shot and it will not hold a charge. I would consider getting a new battery first and disconnecting the battery lead every time you shut off the vehicle until you can track down the problem. This should at least save your new battery.

I would run through everything and clean all of your leads and grounds if you haven't already. I would then disconnent all the accesories. See if you still have the low voltages. If so, then you need to systematically check out the vehicles electrical system circuit by circuit until you track it down. If it is working fine, then start connecting your accesories until you encounter the problem.

This should give you a start.

Good try but the battery is brand new. Yes, I'm afraid I will check every stickin circuit someday soon. I'm gonna wait until I put my new 304 in and rewire the whole beast. Just kinda pisses me off right now. I hate having my stuff "rigged" which is its current state.

Thanks

How new is new? If you've already completely discharged your battery more than 10 times and it is not a deep cycle, I sure wouldn't keep it!

As far as the wiring, I know what you mean. I hate stuff that is rigged. A friend of mine is rebuliding his Samurai and he had the Winchester Mystery Wiring System. I told him to rip it all out and I was going to start from scratch. He pulled out three different wiring systems and he wondered why it never worked right!

Remove the negative battery cable at the battery and hook up a test light between the cable and the battery post. With the key off the test light should be off. If it glows you have a draw so start pulling fuses till it goes out and then you know what serkets to check.