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Battery is a month old

No drain on battery overnight..i noticed that when trying to start it after battery was drained again I heard a spark at the starter..maybe selenoid…this starter was rebuilt last year but used on the 12 volt system…I’m think maybe the starter is causing the battery to drain..could that be possible? If there is a drain on battery it is happening after I start it for sure.

The starter should have zero power until the solenoid is triggered. If you see any power there when not actively starting, then there some kind of leakage occurring through the solenoid. Which means you need a new solenoid.

The ground side of the battery has 00 gauge cable routes directly to starter. When I test the voltage where cable is nutted to starter I’m getting full battery power 6.2 volts ….when I ground it to body and key is off…nothing to the selenoid…the starter shares the wire to power the horn and 10 gauge to ammeter..per original wiring diagram. So there should not be power going to the starter ?? That would explain a lot but how could it not have power when nothing in between the battery and starter?tks

So yes with key off ..starter getting full juice

Just to clarify, it’s not the ground side of the battery that is connected to the solenoid. It’s the negative side. The ground side is the positive terminal.

Ok, next: I assume you did the “spark test” as I wrote earlier? If so, again have the doors closed etc. so all accessories are off. Then just disconnect one side of the battery and hook up your multimeter ammeter in series. You should read NO current going thru. 1mA or less.

Please note that you should NOT try to use any accessories when your ammeter is hooked up; usually they only have a 0.2A fuse which any device will blow.

Here is a tutorial which is more specific if you need some photos:innova.com/blogs/fix-advices/how-to-test-for-a-parasitic-draw

Ok I already did the spark test and just tiny spark with some light…I just competed tests for drain and one volt meter game me a reading of 0.29 volts…my other voltmeter read it at 0.45… I then tried just the battery with both voltmeters and they were consistent so I don’t know why they are different running the. In series with a cable off… o did similar test with test light in series and the light only came on when I turned on something….but again i am getting fully voltage at starter and yes it’s the ground side of battery…it’s getting confusing…..where do I go from here..?

Quote:

Do you mean 0.29 AMPS? Or did you have it set to volts?

If it's set to volts, we can still use this result. Usually a digital voltmeter has 10k internal impedance at least, so since you're reading such a low voltage, the rest of the circuit is open. So this is a good result if it is set to volts like you said.

If you meant to say that it was set to amps, that's a very bad result and you have a lot of leakage.

Set at volts so I guess I’m good with that….I guess I’ll try a new solenoid to starter?

I wouldn’t. We already found that there should be no phantom drain. In addition, your charging system is working.

Can you remind me what actually isn’t working at this point?

It sounds like you should be able to use the car normally with no electrical issues. Unless I’m forgetting something (probably am).