Finding electrical draw on battery

[Guest zerpie1]

Any ideas on how to find an electrical draw on my battery. It goes dead overnight. I don't want to keep on disconnecting the battery every time I stop the car. Early 260z w/350 swap. Did the same thing before the swap.

[Guest Gillez260ZT]

The easiest is to hook up an ammeter between positive battery terminal and the battery post. You'll immediately see the current draw. Don't turn on any lights, open any doors to make the dome light go on or draw any current to save your multimeter. Pull each fuse one by one and when the current draw drops you'll at least know what circuit it's on. All you'll have to do after is find where on that circuit the problem is.

[Guest zerpie1]

Thanks. That's pretty much what I was thinking. Now all I need to do is try to find an ammeter to borrow. Although this is a good excuse to buy a new tool.

[TomoHawk]

Make sure it's not your battery thatr goes dead overnight. Sounds like you figured that part out already ( disconnecting every night).

[srgunz]

Actually you want to disconnect the NEG cable. Put the voltmeter red lead on the battery neg terminal and the black lead to the neg battery cable.

Now begin unplugging things one at a time. Start with the alternator. Many times that is the culprit.

[Guest zerpie1]

I found the draw. It was the ignition switch. I replaced it with a spare and everything's fine now. Except for the slow wipers, dim headlights, and some relay buzzing half the time. Gotta love z car wiring!