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Mon Jul 12, 2004 4:41 am

Is this (below) a procedure I could use for my '73 1303S?
I feel very insecure when dealing with currents that might kill you i.e. My car battery.

/Joakim

"Speedy Jim" wrote, regarding testing for electrical drain from the battery -

* Take the positive cable off the battery.

* Connect the VOM meter from the cable to the positive post.

* If set to DC Volts, the meter will respond to the slightest drain. If it shows a drain, switch to DC milliamps. Any reading over, say, 5 ma is suspect.

* From that point you can disconnect things to find any culprit.

Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:35 am

First, the only way a 12 volt car battery can kill you is if its droped on your head. Even getting zapped by the built-up voltage from your coil will only make your jump. The current isn't sustained long enough to do any significant damage.

Go ahead and follow the proceedure, and don't worry about the voltage.

-jeffrey

Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:34 am

jhicken wrote: First, the only way a 12 volt car battery can kill you is if its droped on your head.

#-o

:lol:

Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:52 am

Maybe it can't kill you, but it can perform unintended surgery: I accidentally touched my wedding band to one terminal while tightening the other terminal with a wrench and found the band being welded to my skin. Great fun!

Mon Jul 12, 2004 12:51 pm

Thank's everyone!
I'll watch my head and when I get married, well I'll probably have worse things to consider than being fried right? :wink:

Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:54 pm

J.Svard wrote:

* From that point you can disconnect things to find any culprit.[/i]

Something that wasn't mentioned that will narrow down your troubleshooting time greatly, is to disconnect the fuses one-by-one and re-check at the battery with your VOM. When you find the fuse that stops the current flow, troubleshoot everything on that circuit only.

If you're not sure what fuse goes where, have no manuals, well.. shame on you! Just kidding, check the diagrams below.

http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring/index.html

Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:15 pm

Something funny and typical happened to friends with a 71 super vert.
The battery went dead every once in a while. After testing the whole circuitry, they finally reqlize springs under the back seats somehow were coming in contact with battery poles now and then, thus happily emptying the thing. They just put some wood piece under there and it took care of it.

Mon Jul 12, 2004 4:03 pm

seaside, its a good thing the foam under the late model seats dont catch fire as easily as the horsehair in the earlier cars :wink: