Lee Zook

I have an 86 951. The alternator is not very old, maybe 3 years, less than 15k miles and new battery. The problem started last week, apparently while I drove to work. I found out about the current draw through a dead battery, which. I replaced. I was doing trouble shooting today by hooking up the battery with amp meter in series and started removing all the fuses and relays and looked for a reduction in the current draw. I removed (and reinstalled) all and did not see any change for the 6.9 amp draw that I started with. I replaced all the battery to alternator/starter wiring several years ago with the ice shark kit. Any ideas on what to look for?
Thanks,
Lee

931guru

If you have removed all the fuses and still have a draw, it might be the alternator or the starter. Removing the electric connections from those units will isolate the problem.

william_b_noble

remove the hot lead from the battery - there are (on my cars, at least) 3 wires connected right at the battery +. connect them to the battery one at a time and find which is drawing current. could be moisture - but there should be heat - 6.5 amps at 12 V is 7 watts, you should be able to feel that, something will be warm.

morghen

Starter motor solenoid

Lee Zook

Starter motor was the one pulling the current. I have the starter out now and going to purchase a bosch remanufactured unit.
Thanks,
Lee

Lee Zook

I wanted to close the loop on this. Turns out that the starter had not shorted to ground. I did more testing and it lead me to the alternator. This lead me to the Ice Shark headlight harness where I found that one of the relays was stuck open. It was a long path to a quick result. I had forgotten that the IC light harness ran from the back of the alternator. Relays replaced and cash was somewhat conserved.
Thanks,
Lee