Gosh, I love this forum! Great replies and fast! Thanks, guys.
I've checked all connections for corrosion, looseness, etc. and all's ok.
It has been pretty cold here in North Florida these last couple of weeks, and that's probably exacerbating the issue. Since first post, I've checked the specific gravity, and all cells are > 3.0 except one which is a little more than 2.75.
I'll try Patbob's suggestion to disconnect the leads overnight and see if there is any drop in voltage in the morning.
I feel confident that I'm getting good charging. I think there is either something within the battery itself that is discharging it or that there is some "ignition off" drain. I'll have to replace the "meter protection" fuse in my volt ohm meter. I left it on 200ma scale to see if there was a drain on the battery with the key out, but the driver's door blew open and the dome light came on, which draws 650 ma and promptly blew the meter fuse... on the unprotected 10 amp scale, I see ~ .01 amp drain, which I think is the clock. I'll remove the car's fuse for that group of accessories and re-test when I can use the 200ma scale again.
I do know that the a/c servo will drain a good battery within a day or so if the motor cannot completely park the servo (those of you who don't have that device don't know how lucky you are). I've been through that situation before and now have one of George Murphy's aluminum body servo, and I can hear the servo motor park when the ignition is turned off.
Just wondered if anyone had seen a battery in a charging system which had (past tense) bad diodes. Thankfully AZ cheerfully replaced the alternator so I can't verify the diodes as the root cause of that alt failure. I want to resurrect my OLD, old alt when I find diodes for it, then I'll have a spare. Interestingly, the AZ rebuild was remanned by Remy of Delco-Remy fame (I believe) so I had
some confidence in them.
I think ultimately the solution will be to convince the Interstate Battery people to pro-rate me a new battery, and I'm looking for documentation to support my theory. From their perspective, they charged it and "it works."
This is becoming a matter of pride, as my wife (2008 Honda Odyssey driver) says I'm delusional when I tell her what great cars these are... ok, it's 33 years old, and hasn't much paint left and has some rust, but I doubt her Honda will have much left after that much time. I sincerely believe these are the best automobiles ever made. Too bad I had to call her for a jump start last night.
Tnx again