1979 R model Short

[hicrop10]

It seems everytime I let the old girl sit for a week or more the batteries go dead.Any comments.Thanks

[j hancock]

A short would cause the circuit to trip.

Might take a test light to the wiring bus bar on the firewall and see what circuit is "on" when it shouldn't be.

[Maddog13407]

had the same problem with our 72 DM. put a master kill switch on it and cured the problem. I think you could also find it pretty easily with what J said. or undo the battery cable and touch it to the terminal on the batter, if it sparks you def know you have draw there

[turckster]

If your going to have it shut down for an extended period of time, I'd say a dead man switch is what you need. Or, you could spend a little time and find out where that draw is coming from. remove all negative cables from the battery terminals, use a test light to jump from one cable to the battery terminal. If it glows brightly then chances are you have a good draw on the batteries. Unplug the fuses one at a time to find the source of the draw. Whatever is in that circuit is the problem. Alternators and radios pull a little amperage so the test light will always have a little light.

[b61mack]

Disconnect the alternator when sitting, see if that helps.

[hicrop10]

Maddog,I have done what you said about taking off the bat. cable from the terminal and it does spark,so I do have a draw.I am going to try what Jhancock said to do.Will let you all know when I have done this,hopefully will be done on Friday.Thanks for the help. Mike

[gearhead204]

if you have a volt meter it will draw if not ran through the cab power relay, just a thought

[br549]

We had a lot of problems on old leece-neville alternators drawing down Batteries on a 2 or 3 day period. You could unhook and check, or we would just raise the hood after a night and feel of the alternator and it was warmer than than the rest of the metal around it than it is pulling current.

[hicrop10]

jhancock,i tried testing the circuit panal,they all have juice coming to them except the 3 on the left side.

[rickykarenpr]

do you have a pic of the truck??

[hicrop10]

Yes will try to post one.

[rickykarenpr]

ok

[hicrop10]

Here's a pic.

[jaysm35a2]

man I wish I had one like that.

Can always do the switch , but if your like me you would want to track it down and fix it like it should be

[hicrop10]

This truck has only 72,000 orignal miles,it been in our family since new.My dad brought 20 of them,they were used to pull dump trailers.

[rsb502]

The Superliner did the same thing till I swapped out the stereo, hasn't done it since.

[hicrop10]

This truck has no radio,i'm thinking it the accessory soilord on the breaker panal is bad.

[Rusty Bolts]

hi , you mite looking at your battery cables that go over the top of the trans, I had the same problem in two trucks, it does not take much. by the way nice truck

[Mikesbucketlistmack]

My R model was formerly a municipal truck. They put a master kill switch in the cab of all their trucks to prevent something drawing juice by being left on but more importantly I was told that there was a case when something short circuited in a truck overnight and the thing caught fire and was destroyed. Nice truck you have, by the way. I like the red rims and fuel tank. You don't see that everyday. What does it have for a transmission ?

[doubleclutchinweasel]

If it actually has an alternator, not a generator, a defective diode in the rectifier circuit will also cause this.