My battery's got a little parasitic drain.

Battery charge: 12.6V

With everything off, neg. cable unplugged, draw between battery and cable: 11.3V No Amp reading.

Then, doing it again, I noticed the 11.3 wasn't a constant thing...sometimes, it would start at around 10.8 and slowly discharge down to 9.2 or so and then bump back up into the tens and back down again, back & forth...

Pulled fuses. With the #2 fuse removed, draw between battery and neg. cable goes down to .02V. This is a nonesential circuit, so I can use the car without it, the buzzer doesn't work (kind of nice, actually), the interior lights, etc.

I'm guessing it's something to do with the hatch area, roof light, maybe the antenna. This area was damaged in an accident. The hatch trim panel is missing. Is there supposed to be a light in the hatch itself? I have a dangling wire that reads current when metered across the two poles.

Now...I'm not much when it comes to electricity. So I'm not entirely sure how to check a circuit to find a short or what's causing the draw. I have a multimeter, which I probe around with, but I have to admit I don't entirely know what I'm doing. I'm not looking for continuity--if I'm, say checking the light, do I pull the bulb and read the voltage across the two leads?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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marshall

1982 300TD (220,000 mi.)