78 camper Dual Battery Question

Folks,

I have recently acquired a 78 camper. It seems to slowly drain the battery
over a period of a few weeks. I only have the ignition battery installed.
The aux. battery is not in place with just the bare terminal connectors
lying on the battery tray area.

My question is this: could the aux. battery cables (if not hooked up to a
battery) cause the main battery to slowly drain? I know there is a switch
for the dual battery. I believe mine is off.
The only electrical thing that is not original is the stereo. I believe this
may be the problem if it is not the aux. battery. Other than that, I would
suspect the ignition switch next. The van only has 80k original miles on it.
So I am not inclined to think that the ignition may be worn out.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Matt

I would say the battery is bad and won't hold a charge, the radio draws a
little power for memory and the clock so that could cuase your problem. As
for the Aux battery wires touching, with the ignition on try using a test
light to see if you get power at the end of any wires. If you do, tape the
ends so they don't cause a short.

DC

"Matthewd" > wrote in message
...
> Folks,
>
> I have recently acquired a 78 camper. It seems to slowly drain the battery
> over a period of a few weeks. I only have the ignition battery installed.
> The aux. battery is not in place with just the bare terminal connectors
> lying on the battery tray area.
>
> My question is this: could the aux. battery cables (if not hooked up to a
> battery) cause the main battery to slowly drain? I know there is a switch
> for the dual battery. I believe mine is off.
> The only electrical thing that is not original is the stereo. I believe
> this
> may be the problem if it is not the aux. battery. Other than that, I would
> suspect the ignition switch next. The van only has 80k original miles on
> it.
> So I am not inclined to think that the ignition may be worn out.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt
>

Matthewd wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I have recently acquired a 78 camper. It seems to slowly drain the battery
> over a period of a few weeks. I only have the ignition battery installed.
> The aux. battery is not in place with just the bare terminal connectors
> lying on the battery tray area.
>
> My question is this: could the aux. battery cables (if not hooked up to a
> battery) cause the main battery to slowly drain? I know there is a switch
> for the dual battery. I believe mine is off.
> The only electrical thing that is not original is the stereo. I believe this
> may be the problem if it is not the aux. battery. Other than that, I would
> suspect the ignition switch next. The van only has 80k original miles on it.
> So I am not inclined to think that the ignition may be worn out.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt
>
The best way is to actually "measure" the draw.
If you have a multi-meter (VOM), set it to a
high-range milliamp scale.

Remove the battery Neg cable. Connect the meter
leads from the battery Neg post to the (now-removed)
Neg cable.
If there is danger of the radio losing its code,
do this quickly or devise a way to have the meter
leads connected as you pull the nattery cable off.

Anyway, see what the meter reads. I would say that
a reading of, oh, ~20 milliamps or less should not
"drain" the battery.

It's very possible that the battery is draining
"internally". You can't measure that easily but
the above test will at least rule in or out the
Bus as the cause.

If you *do* get a high milliamp reading, start
pulling fuses until the draw goes down.

Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/