Battery Drain..HELP!

[brentandlorie]

1992 xlt 4wd..208,00 miles and runs great, except...

Battery drains slowly over time to the point it kills the batteries ability to recharge. Robs its ability to store cranking amps??!!!
I can jump it. battery won't hold cranking amps after about 6 months. Walmart, bless there ignort hearts, keeps giving me abrand new battery on waranty, but i need it to stop!

One thing that baffles me is, when i turn the truck off, I hear a whirring noise and then a few clicks. Sounds like it is coming from the power dist. box?
Does anyone else hear that? seems like a fuel relay, but shouldn't I hear that when I turn the key on, not off?

what I have done:
cables lok good, terminals cleaned
fule pump relay and fuse replaced
starter ( old one was working, but pulling 13.2 amps from battery instead of normal 12. I figured this was slowly killing the battery, but no!)
ignition cylinder ( was pretty worn, key off center, loose in core)
ignition switch ( old one was not running smoothly, sticking)

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[brentandlorie]

Seriously/ No one can tell me if they hear the electrical motor and clicking sound when they shut off their Exploders?

Come on guys.......

 

[Tbars4]

...i'm with ya...

...i recently have this same thing going on and when i read your post well, it could have been mine...the only diff is sometimes i can go out to the truck and open and shut a door and then i hear the whir and click...this started for me after a trail run on thanksgiving and i was a little abusive to the truck and i landed on my rock sliders a couple times hard enough to dent my rockers......when i got home i was done unloading the truck and was standing there chatting with a neighbor when all of a sudden the click and the whir all by itself...
...the click and whir is the same thing you get when you turn the key on...it is the fuel pump relay, the click, and the fuel pump starting is the whir...
...just recently going to a couple other trail runs i've been trying to listen while hitting bumps and every once in awhile i will here multiple clicking like it is coming from the lower part of the steering column, and most of the time i can't duplicate it...:scratch:
...my evaluation of this so far is it might be the dreaded ignition wire in the column which is buried deep in the harness...i have previously read on other threads of this wire getting rubbed bare in the harness and causing other probs...i haven't got this far into it yet but i thought i would share...

 

[brentandlorie]

Thanks tBars..thought I was the only one! I also would hear the noise when closing a door or as it sits in the driveway. As I mentioned, I replaced the ignition switch, and no bruned wires i could see in the harness. My battery stayed charged last night and the new ignition switch seems much better, not sticking, etc..... I will update wiht info if my battery goes dead again.

 

[Tbars4]

...yea, the ignition switch is basically a power on/off only...i read before in the threads that over time this is somewhat common for the wire to rub against something and have similar affects...you might try searching for it as i haven't spent the time lately and i'm pretty sure it was posted like 3-4 mo's ago...

...from what i remember they kept digging in the harness and it was a really tight wire that they couldn't see the wear on...

...i hate shorts in wires, lol....

 

[brentandlorie]

All the electrical testing advice i received was great and all signs pointed back to a bad relay after all! Bought another one from autozone and bingo......relay activates the pump when i turn the key on, and not when i shut her off. The one I replaced a month or so back was bought at schucks auto parts. I guess that's what i get for "assuming" a new part would work.

That isn't the first bad elecrtical part I got from schucks, but it will be the last!

Thanks to everyone.

 

[Tbars4]

...cool, keep us informed if for some reason this one goes bad too...and i'm hoping it doesn't...

 

[brentandlorie]

will do. I wish I could have grabbed a motorcraft relay, but time constraints......