New forum member, and long time owner of a lovely 1992 F150 custom, complete with manual gearbox.
For a number of years, it has liked to crank a bit before actually starting, and recently as a battery died out, chugged a bit longer than normal before turning over.
I replaced my battery, all was good! Still an extra crank before start, but that's always been the case. Yesterday I went to start up, and *nothing*. Brand new battery full dead.
So, I've got a power draw issue, clearly. Starter and alternator are both in great shape. My cost effective (?) solution is gonna be to install a kill switch so there won't be any battery drain when off. I live in a large city where car theft is a big issue, so this seems like a doubly good solution anyway.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a switch kit? I'm only interested in ones that wire inside to the driveshaft or nearby there.
Also, if there's a thread already covering this, please feel free to redirect. I didn't see anything when I searched, but it's easy to miss stuff.
Thanks all.

 

Nothing is clear until you diagnose the problem. And killing all power is not good for the engine - it clears the EEC adaptions, which are how the EEC keeps the engine tuned as all the parts wear.

Before you assume the battery is dead, test its voltage across the POSTS (not the clamps AROUND the posts). Make a shiny-clean spot on each post - don't just measure through the oxide & corrosion. Click these & read all the captions:


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