Discharge of Battery Overnight

[Martin Benade]

The warm generator sounds like a good suspect and easy to check, although as I write this I am wondering if a stuck relay would illuminate the gen light.

[Mike Wilson]

Red light? Interesting. I hadn't thought about the voltage regulator malfunctioning.

Mike

[George Hussey]

if it went down with one terminal disconnected the battery is bad, simple

[Mike Wilson]

I forgot about that but he said both batteries tested o.k.

Mike

[Erik Olsen]

Followed David Jones advice above using voltmeter. Fuse no 2(accessories) was the "culprit". Just pulled it since I don' t need radio(not sure it works) cigarette lighter or broken clock,Real test will be tomorrow when it starts on battery left in Circuit. I agree, that parasitic draw must be significant. I'll report tomorrow on much anticipated success . Thanks to all. Its a great FORUM
Cheers ERIK

[Mike Wilson]

Thanks for keeping us posted. Scrstching my head why the battery would drain if one cable is disconnected.

Mike

[Brad Ripley]

Follow instruction sequence of Paul Lima in his post from yesterday.

[Erik Olsen]

Solution Found--- Battery stays up after 48 hrs. ."Parasitic drain" was accessory fuse(probably short in radio or dead clock). David Jones advice on eliminating potential sources by sequentially pulling fuses and watching Voltmeter worked perfectly . I'm fortunate it did not involve Voltage Regulator or more. I'm not sure battery drained with one cable disconnected. May have drained beforehand--sorry. Thanks for all the good Forum member suggestions. Cheers. ERIK OLSEN

[Geoff Fleming]

You can eliminate the clock as a source of the electric drain. The 356 uses a mechanical clock which is activated every fifteen or so seconds by a brief electric impulse. It is not an electric clock by any means and does not require a constant current flow.
Glad you found the solution to your battery problem...often it does take some time by process of elimination before the reason is found.

[Martin Benade]

At least it doesn’t have 50 electronic modules like a modern luxury car.

[Mike Wilson]

Congrats on solving the problem! Question: do the clock and radio work?

Mike

[Erik Olsen]

No,clock and radio were inoperable when I took delivery of car. I would note that cig. lighter is also on the acc fuse...which will stay pulled for the forseeable future. I did also reconnect the horn which functions without "shocking". Was a suspect at the time however due to electrical gremlins. Must have been static electricity ....BUT thats kind of weird given that it happened in August in Fl when humidity is such that static electricity is not an issue...
In summary I'm a happy camper. Thanks. ERIK OLSEN

[Mike Wilson]

The clock and cigarette lighter are on the same wire and constantly energized. The radio should be "on" only when the ignition switch is on. If the radio needs repair, there are a few people that repair them. The clock can be converted to a quartz movement by either Palo Alto or North Hollywood Speedo. The cigarette lighter is pretty straight forward. Just make sure it and the clock are well grounded and the correct glow element is in the lighter.

Mike