Electrical drain?

[Yankee]

I have a 6 volt positive ground system with original generator and cut out - no alternator. I have replaced the battery about one year ago and since it needed to be charged in order to start. Ammeter shows appox. +4 when driving and -20 (pegs to left) with lights on in any position. I believe there is a drain somewhere, but all the connections appear to be tight. What do I check next?

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

With the lights off and the brake pedal all the way back, so the brake switch is also off, you can remove a battery cable and check for drain. Put an amp meter is series with the battery post and cable, and you should show 0 amps.

If you don't do a lot of night driving or a lot of short drives with many starts, then a 4 amp charge should be OK.

 

[Patrick L.]

A 20 amp draw with lights on is quite a lot,, depending on what type/kind of lights you have.. With regular 32-50cp headlight bulbs,, the draw should be around 12-15 amps.. It sounds like you may have a poor light connection..
Does the ammeter read zero with everything off ?? You still should check for a draw as Tom suggested..

 

[Yankee]

I have the regular headlight bulbs. The ammeter reads zero with everything off. I am not an electrical guro, if I check for a draw at the battery.......and find a draw......where would the problem be?

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

I have the regular headlight bulbs. The ammeter reads zero with everything off. I am not an electrical guro, if I check for a draw at the battery.......and find a draw......where would the problem be?

It could be anywhere there's a wire to carry current. If you remove the lights/horn wire terminal from the output side of the cutout, then you have just removed the lights and horn as a possible drain. In other words, if you still have a drain you don't need to look for it in the lights or horn circuits. But you still have the charging circuit and ignition circuit to look at. If you have a repro ignition switch, sometimes the terminal shorts to the gas tank and this keeps the coil energized and kills the battery and often burns up the coil. I had to bend the terminals on a repro iginition switch last week for this reason.