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Battery Drain Help Needed

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ricky racer
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Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby ricky racer » Fri Aug 20, 2021 8:53 pm

I'm trying to track down a drain on a battery on a friends Cub. When I disconnect the positive 6 v. battery ground and place a voltmeter between the battery cable and battery it shows between .14 & .16 drain on the battery. When I disconnect the battery cable at the starter which also disconnects the charge indicator cable, the voltmeter drops to 0. So, does this indicate the drain is coming from the ignition switch or amp gauge? What should I purse to find what is causing the drain?
1929 Farmall Regular
1935 John Deere B
1937 John Deere A
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Eugene
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby Eugene » Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:18 pm

My guess, sticking cut out in voltage regulator. If not the voltage regulator, most likely light switch.

Disconnect battery, fully charge. Multi-meter, highest amp setting, connect with one amp probe to disconnected battery cable and the other probe to the terminal. Check the multi-meter amp draw.

Start by disconnecting the battery wire from the voltage regulator. Wire disconnected, check to see if the amp draw has been elimianted. Also check wire condition and for possible shorts.

Not eliminated, disconnect one wire from the light switch, and so on.
I have an excuse. CRS.

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ricky racer
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby ricky racer » Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:30 pm

I started by disconnecting the battery wire at the voltage regulator and it reduced the draw to .09 volts (not amps). I systematically removed each wire from the voltage regulator and it reduced the draw but never to 0. With the voltage regulator wires reattached and the battery cable removed from the starter, the draw dropped to 0. I haven't checked the light switch yet...
1929 Farmall Regular
1935 John Deere B
1937 John Deere A
1941 John Deere H
1952 John Deere B
1953 Farmall Cub

Eugene
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby Eugene » Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:40 pm

Check battery cable condition, Ohms.

Remove the smaller cables from the starter terminal, reconnect the battery cable. If still a voltage draw. I like amps, then the problem is either the switch or battery cable.

Also, wash the top of the battery with baking soda.

Edit. Use amps when checking for a battery drain.
I have an excuse. CRS.

tst
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby tst » Fri Aug 20, 2021 9:52 pm

check for bad grounds also, they can make things crazy

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Glen
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby Glen » Sat Aug 21, 2021 12:30 am

Hi,
You didn't say, I guess this is the Cub in your pics, it looks like a mid 1958 and above, serial number 210001 and above, up to 1964.
If the system is wired the original way, if you disconnect the smaller wire that goes on the starter post, the whole system except the starter is disconnected from the battery.
Everything except the starter gets power from the smaller wire that connects to the starter post.

Below is a wiring diagram for the 6 volt electrical system with voltage regulator.
Serial number 210001 and above have a different light switch than in the diagram, it is a 4 position light switch, it is round.
The Cub parts manual has a wiring diagram, if you need it. :)
Attachments
cubwiringlate.jpg

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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby NJ Farmer » Sat Aug 21, 2021 1:05 am

It can be an internal short causing the drain (bad battery). It may have been dropped or bad manufacture.
If everything is disconnected and it’s dropping more than .005 volts it’s a bad battery. If under warranty take it back for an exchange or credit on months left on warranty either way a battery should not draw just sitting.

NJ Farmer

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ricky racer
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby ricky racer » Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:26 am

Okay guys, here is what I've got. This morning with the battery fully charged the draw on the battery appears to be less, .06 volts. I can remove the ignition switch from the electrical circuit by removing the wire from the L terminal at the regulator. When I do that it reduces the draw to about .04 volts. I can remove the light switch from the circuit by removing he fuse which takes it out of the circuit and makes no difference in my reading. When I remove the small battery cable from the starter it drops the draw down to about .01-.02 volts. When I remove the large battery cable from the starter, my draw drops to zero. I checked for continuity between the lead going to the amp gauge and ground to see if the gauge might be at fault but no continuity was measured.
I ran a load test with my battery tester and the needle remains in the green "Good" range but just barely. Thoughts?
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tst
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby tst » Sat Aug 21, 2021 10:12 am

is it 6 volt ricky with the switch on top of the starter ? check under the switch to make sure it is not making slight contact from switch to starter

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ricky racer
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby ricky racer » Sat Aug 21, 2021 11:23 am

Yes it's a 6 volt system. That was a good suggestion so I checked and there is no continuity between the starter post and ground.
1929 Farmall Regular
1935 John Deere B
1937 John Deere A
1941 John Deere H
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ricky racer
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby ricky racer » Sun Aug 22, 2021 5:43 pm

Okay, here's an update. I've been able to isolate the amp gauge, ignition switch, light switch and voltage regulator. None appear to be causing the drain on the battery. I can remove all of the above devices from the system by removing the small battery cable that leads from the starter post to the amp gauge. That only leaves the battery cable from the battery terminal to the starter post which still shows about a .04 volt drain. I even checked my Cub to see if it showed similar readings but the readings on my Cub were zero volts. I also disassembled the voltage regulator but found no stuck contacts.

After removing each device from the circuit to check for any drain, and having only the battery cable connected to the battery post and the starter the drain remained. Although I couldn't detect any continuity between the post on the starter switch to ground I suspected, as Tim suggested, that must be the culprit. I just so happened to have a new starter switch hanging on the wall of my shop so I installed it but it showed no difference so I switched it back to the original one. That made me suspect the cable itself although I wasn't sure how or why. To test the possibility that it was the battery cable, I removed the cable and connected a jumper cable between the battery and the starter post. It still shows a draw. I'm at my wits end trying to find the problem and at this point, I'm giving up. I've spent too much time with no results.
1929 Farmall Regular
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby inairam » Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:23 pm

Did you pull the hood and the dash and look behind the dash for something? I have a 6v loboy doing that. I charged out the regulator and that did not fix it. It came on all of a sudden so my only thought after the regulator is something I can not see is causing a problem behind the dash.
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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby Clemsonfor » Sun Aug 22, 2021 6:51 pm

inairam wrote:Did you pull the hood and the dash and look behind the dash for something? I have a 6v loboy doing that. I charged out the regulator and that did not fix it. It came on all of a sudden so my only thought after the regulator is something I can not see is causing a problem behind the dash.

He has taken all the wires off except the large wire to the starter from the battery. At that point nothing behind the dash should have any power to it... physically can't, it's impossible without any of the working connected to power. The only way would be if you had a second tiny wire connected to the battery running behind the dash...but I would think he or you would see that.

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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby tst » Sun Aug 22, 2021 8:22 pm

did you check for bad grounds they can make you crazy, remember a bad ground in a cop car that had actually made the radi wires read 200 volts!!

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Re: Battery Drain Help Needed

Postby Jim Becker » Sun Aug 22, 2021 10:08 pm

0.04 volts can't be much of a drain. Is it really causing a problem? Wouldn't it be lost within the internal loss of the battery itself.


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