Engines Draining Deep Cycle Batteries

Engines Draining Deep Cycle Batteries
  • NewPacemakerNewPacemaker June 2011

    Hi, I am hoping that someone can assist me with this problem. I have a '71 Pacemaker with 1982 454- 350 Crusaders Engines. Each engine has it's own battery while the starboard engine shares usage with the house. The problem I am having is that whenever the engine is connected to the battery, drains the battery within 30-minutes, there is a burning smell and the positive wire that goes to the 12 volt panel also gets very warm to the touch. The battery also sparks when connecting the negative cable (indicating a power draw somewhere along the engine's circuitry) to the battery. Once I disconnect the engine's negative 12 volt cable and leave the house cables connected to the battery, the house wire cools down and the battery no longer drains. Do you think that this could be a bad ignition switch or perhaps the starter solenoid is sticking up? Thank you in advance for any information.

  • Case1952Case1952 June 2011

    To isolate which circuit has the short, disconnect your positive cable, set your multi meter to ohms, set one lead on ground and the other on the disconnected battery cable. the short will show up as 0 ohms on the meter a few ohms. Now disconnect one fuse at a time in your fuse box until the short goes away. wa la you've found the bad circuit. Your meter will show the resistance (alot of ohms) of each load item connect via the fuse box. Dont forget you bilge pumps dont wire through the fuse box. They could also be a souce of a short. Any electrical item not connected through you fuse box will need to be metered separately. ie your starter or altenator (Warning) Make sure there is no power on any circuit you are metering while in the ohms position. It could ruin your multi meter, blow the meters fuse (cheap meters). Also, a battery will show approx 12 volts when the engine is not running and 14 volts with the motor running indicating your alternator is working. To check alternator output, set you multi meter to dc volts. Hope this helps.

  • waynex18waynex18 June 2011

    you should disconect the alternater and see if the draw goes away somtimes the regulater will stik on the closed position @NewPacemaker

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