[db11020]

I've had current leak somewhere in the '67 Chevelle I recently bought. One thing I noticed was the ground wire from the negative battery cable/post was cut vs. grounded to the inside fender. I spliced/grounded it with 10g wire, and the voltage seems to be holding so far.



I don't get it though. If not being grounded is/was the problem, how could something be drawing current? I'm an electronics ingnoramus for the most part, but this doesn't make sense. Either this took care of it, or the problem is intermittent and I'm getting fooled for the moment.



A local shop told me they've seen lots of HEI distributors (mine has an MSD) wired wrong that could draw current when the car isn't running. Separate topic I suppose.

Connect a multi-meter in series with the negative battery cable and start pulling fuses to see which circuit is drawing power with the key off. When you pull a fuse and the current draw drops to zero, that is the circuit with the problem. It could also be the alternator or voltage regulator, you can do a diode test on the alternator, if one of your diodes is bad, it can cause your problem. I just went through this on my 72 Chevelle, and it was the voltage regulator. If you have 12VDC on the field wire at the alternator, might be a bad regulator. Your ground path was being completed where your negative cable was connected to the battery, likely through the engine, so it may have been a difficult path to get a good ground.


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