Tom,
On the door of the fridge in my '75 Palm Beach there is a switch marked with
something about humidity. It's apparently some sort of frost free feature.
If it's left on it will drain batteries in a day or so and there is no
indication other than the switch position. I believe it even draws power
when the fridge is shut off. It zapped my batteries once last year and again
this year but I still haven't gotten around to disabling it. Yours could
have this gremlin also.
All of the current from the house battery should be passing thru the fuse
block. If you're drawing enough current to drain the batteries in a short
time you can probably detect a small spark when you make & break the
circuit. That's how I found the fridge currrent this last time. One of
those light bulb continuity testers is the next logical step for trouble
shooting. I usually never know where mine is but I do always have a DVM handy.
You can either use a DVM to measure current directly or deduce current by
measuring voltage drops. When DVM's are in current mode they are actually
measuring voltage across a calibrated meter shunt. It's possible to use a
length of wire or measure across an existing wire to create your own meter
shunt. I don't remember the precise details but the '79 GMC chassis that I
had had about a number 10 wire from the alternator to the battery. I used a
sharp point to pierce the insulation and spread the wire strands in two
spots about a foot apart (I used some wire tables and some experimenting to
find just the right distance). Then when I inserted the DVM probes in the
holes I had an ammeter that was calibrated 200 amps full scale, had 100 ma
steps, and didn't blow meter fuses.
You probably don't need to get as fancy as making calibrated shunts but as a
practical matter it's usually possible to find points on the wiring harness
where voltage drops can be measured to deduce where the current is going
without actually opening any circuits to measure it. Your situation seens to
have enough drain that there should be enough drop across the fuse block to
deduce which circuit is the problem. The offending circuit will have a few
millivolts drop across that fuse.
Hope this helps
Dick
>I am trying to determine what is causing the generator battery to brain.
>>From a full charge the battery list charge in 24 hours with everything off
>except the gas refrigerator and freezer.
>
>Can anyone offer a suggestion or a test procedure?
>
>Regards,
>Tom Winslow
>
>--
>Thomas P. Winslow
>1977 GMC Coca-Cola TZE167V101893
>1974/75 GMC Eleganza SE TZE064V101146
>189 Hicks Creek Road, Troutman, NC 28166
>h704-528-5868 * f704-528-5868 * p704-878-1157
>E-Mail: winslow * tom_winslow
>Web Page:
http://www.iredell.com
>
>
>
>
>
wner-gmcmotorhome]On Behalf Of Russ Bethel
