Battling a battery drain issue. The main culprit is a 400mA draw from something on the radio fuse, have to check that out. Installed a new deck recently so who knows.

I still got a 66mA draw with the radio fuse out though and that seemed slightly high. I then pulled every single damn fuse and the draw never dropped.

Soo....what does this mean?

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-Dan
1983 240D AT, 163K running on VO, "The Patience Tester"

Disconnect the alternator and see what you get.

I feel whole heartedly dumb but how does one go about disconnecting the alternator wire?

I fumbled around with it but got nothing accomplished but covering my hands in a nice layer of sludge. Theres what appears to be a spring like top or metal tension wire of some sort.
Do I have to disconnect it from underneath the car?

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-Dan
1983 240D AT, 163K running on VO, "The Patience Tester"

Lift off and move the spring clip away, then wiggle out the connector, its just a pin-on-prongs connector like a typical outlet would be. Wiggle and pull and it will come out.

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Thanks for the explanation
Didn't realize the clip had to be disengaged on the top of the connector

Disconnected the alternator and tested again, still a 66mA draw

__________________
-Dan
1983 240D AT, 163K running on VO, "The Patience Tester"

Possibly the clock/memory presets for the new head unit?

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http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7...144c3fc1dc.jpg

66ma isn't that much, really... I don't think any 20 year old electrical system would be completely without a few leaks here and there, just from old circuits not quite opening and so forth... i'd think that that was a minimal drain, you'd have months of sitting with no charging before that became a problem. (I think)

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Can't be the deck as its currently not getting any power. I have every single fuse pulled right now

66mA is too high in my book, especially so for a car of this age without all the computers. The issue isn't necessarily that really anyway, its that I am getting a draw even with all the fuses pulled; that's not right

__________________
-Dan
1983 240D AT, 163K running on VO, "The Patience Tester"

Does your glowplug relay have a strip fuse like the one in mine? (i don't have any knowledge of a 240) - that one doesn't run through the main fuse box at all, to my knowledge.

could it be one of the numerous relays that are (at least on mine) clustered up at the firewall and in the fuse panel? 240 is simpler than my 603 engine but you're bound to have SOME of those... could one of those be sticking? Our explorer did that... relay for the fuel pump was hanging and draining the battery.

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~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

The only thing that I can figure that is not fused is the starter. If the windings are passing a small current, that would be your culprit. It's a longshot, but, you might wish to disengage the cable from the starter and see what you get.

Interesting point

My 240 does have that little relay box on the driver side fender. Will start pulling those and see if the draw remains

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-Dan
1983 240D AT, 163K running on VO, "The Patience Tester"

Will pull the starter wire if it isn't the relays

Where is the starter located on this engine? I'm a real newbie at this point, haven't got fully acquainted with everything yet

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-Dan
1983 240D AT, 163K running on VO, "The Patience Tester"

66mA is way too hi, I'm thinking the PO prolly hooked something up w/out going thru the fusebox, is it the power antenna?? Possibly some aftermarket gadget?

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Cheers,
Robert

If you have the digital Becker Radio in there it will draw a small amount of current just to hold all your info in the memory like station presets and so on. 66Ma is not that much!

There is 1000 ma in 1 amp. If your battery is 500 amp hours it will take 7,575 hours to discharge that battery to zilch. 7,575 hours is 315 days. 66 ma is not way too high.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked