o I am trying once again to get my car running and take it home... right now I am hunting down a short that will drain a battery in about 12 hours. I havent found where the short is, but i have found the wire in the fusible links box that it is drawing the power from. So I tracked the cable and discovered that a previous owner had put a splice in... one wire goes into the side panel, which i assume goes and powers the dashboard or something, the other wire goes down into a bunch of other wires along the frame, one end of that goes into the firewall, the other splits into the alternator and the headlights wiring. I have included pics of the wiring and wire... if someone could identify the wire and tell me where it is supposed to go that would be great.

CAR: 82 280ZXT






I have identified one of the wires, the one that goes into the wiring along the frame goes to the alternator... but could be shorted with something else along the way... however with the car powered off I only get 0.003 Amps on that wire. However the other wire has a power draw of 0.2 Amps with everything off. This wire does supply power to the dashboard accessories... so now thinking about what accessories dont work... the fan for the heater/AC does not work, the rear window defroster doesnt work and i had to just recently cleaned the tabs on the light switch to get my headlights to work.

 

From What I can tell that is the main feed from the alternator to the fusible link box and also goes to the accsy and ign relay. First check anything that isnt factory on the car, fog lights, stereo. check the dome light, have the battery load tested and make sure that isnt bad. Check your cel phone charger too, ive seen them draw tons of power sometimes. Also, all of that wiring is stock,the PO didntmess with any of it I dont think. Also, replace that fusible link, it doesnt look like the right one to me. I had to replace that same one on my car, got all fried from old age. NAPA or some other good store will have fusible link wire, or at least know what you're talking about and be able to order it.

 

How did this turn out?

You can find a ssytem draw pretty easy by just using a volt meter, and completing the circuit through a removed fuse in your fuse block...

If it was a true short, I would imagine you would have burnt fuse, or wires getting hot/burnt.

With your key in the off position, you can remove all fuses, and then complete the circuit between the fuse sockets with a volt meter.. Anywhere it reads actual voltage is something that is a completed circuit. I.E. a system draw.

Alternator field charge wires left on will kill your battery, with no physical damage to the wiring, or fuses. If it not getting properly shut off, it will sense a low battery voltage, (Lower than around 14v) and actually supply power to the field charge in the alternator.


If none of this helps, let me know. I might still be able to help.
If you figure it out, then I am curious what you found.