I've got a 92 F-150 5.0L, It's got a brand new battery and starter. The alternator checked out good. If I don't take the battery terminals off over night, the battery goes completely dead. I have no idea what's drawling current. The guy that had it before me had a aftermarket alarm in it, and all the wires from the solenoid go to it. I was wondering if that could be my problem ? I need to know where the wire's go from the solenoid to the relay that's supposed tobe there. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to the board.

The solenoid/starter relay could be the problem, if it is stuck closed. Another possibility is the voltage regulator. I had a voltage regulator that went bad in a 93 Dakota and it would drain the battery overnight. As for other suggestions, there are some great mechanics here and they will be able to give you some better ideas where to look.

Good luck.

 

Can anyone help me out with the wiring diagram for the solenoid/starter relay? I want to try to take this alarm out first and then go from there.

 

There's not much to the solenoid wiring. On one side is the positive battery cable end, and all the fusible links that power the various circuits in the truck. On the other side is the cable that goes to the starter, and then there's the start wire to the small solenoid terminal.

 

When you disconnect the battery, is there a spark? You can also connect a common 12 volt test lite between the cable and the battery. If there is a draw the lite will be on bright. Make sure everything is off, ign, hood lite, radio, key in off postion. Start pulling fuses untill lite goes off. Get back to us.

 

Well I finally got the aftermarket alarm out. It took me about 5 hour's to trace down all the wires, It was a total mess. After all of that headache, I hooked up the test light from the positive cable's to the terminal and the light was still bright. I went through and started pulling fuses, the only one that made it dim was a fuse link that another owner had spliced into the interior fuse block. So I just split it with a toggle switch for now. We'll see if it drain's the battery in the morning. Thank's for all the help.

 

Good luck!

 

Well, taking the aftermarket alarm out wasn't the problem, or splicing into the fuse link. I hooked the cable's up over night. Went to start it the next morning and nothing. I guess next I'll try the voltage regulator. Does anybody know where it's located?

 

The voltage regulator is part of the alternator. It is inside the alternator and would have shown bad when it was tested.

 

What else do you think could be draining my battery?