10.34 AMP electrical gremlin.... WHAT is stopping my truck from burning to the ground.

[BRKLYN1]

So the 3 month old back story is ..... Truck( 96 with 240k ) wouldn't start even with a jump... disconnected and cleaned the starter connections. started right up with a jump. From then on increasingly basis the battery (i have 2 Oddessy extremes 2 1/2 old) started needing a jump .... I have drain some place.... Multi meter between the battery negative and the ground cable (with second battery completely dis connected) I get a reading of 10.34 amp ....the same as battery has at the moment. WTF?? anyway I have done the pull fuses routine and disconnected the starter and still get a 10.35.... where can this be going? I have been using a jumper pack to start it for the past 2+ months. I am ready to send it off a cliff luckily there are no cliffs near by.


any help appreciated

 

[robnicko]

what aftermarket electrical accessories are fitted?
I see sub amp in your sig, try disconnecting that for starters

 

[BRKLYN1]

what aftermarket electrical accessories are fitted?
I see sub amp in your sig, try disconnecting that for starters

sub is attached to the second battery that is disconnected, as are KC lights, my winch and USB charger.

 

[sbman]

You need to take a systematic approach to find this type of issue. There are only a limited number of connections to the battery terminal. First, you find which one the drain is on. Starter lead, fusible link 1, 2 or 3 are the only 4 wires connected to the battery.

This information is all in the '96 EWD that you can find here on this site. Once you know which of those four circuits the drain is on then you start eliminating individual circuits attached to that branch by pulling fuses and/or unplugging things. A systematic, methodical approach will find it. Will require some reading and work to find it. I had a smaller drain on mine, and it ended up being a Bluetooth based OBD transmitter plugged into the OBD port.

Page 40 of the 96 EWD is your starting place. This is the tree of power circuits starting with the battery and then branching out to each item in the entire truck. Everything has a fuse or a fusible link, with the exception of the large power wire going to the starter.