Marinette Boat Forum

I was testing the voltage at the distribution panels for the lower helm by switching the breakers on and off. The shower pump terminal still read .13 volt with the breaker switch off. The stereo terminal read .47 volt with the switch off. What's going on? After 29 years are the old airpax breakers starting to leak? I got some new spares and will try them. Stand by.

Electrical problems! Arrgh!

Looks like you'll have to pull one wire at a time until you find the leaker.

The memory circuit in the radio (music) on mine was drawing .03 amps with the ignition off, and that was enough to kill the battery overnight.

Jeff

.3 amps? .03 shod not run down a battery for weeks

tell us about your volt meter

One suggested reality check is to measure the resistance across the breaker with the wires disconnected, if you have a multimeter.

...".03 should not run down a battery for weeks"

Overnight! And twice. And with deep discharge batteries! Beats the hell out of me how that can happen, but... Put a charger on them and they bounce back very quickly.

Jeff

Jeff. Something else must be going on. That's about 1/3 watt. I'd love to see a load test on the batteries or if something is kicking on overnight that is a heavier load? Very odd.

Gotta tell you a story: Years ago the family and I were watching fireworks from our car. The motor was off, but something was still on and ran the battery down (in a 1/2 hour). It was so low that the solenoid only went 'click' (the dreaded click). Called my good buddy Hoppy who came out to jump the battery.

Here's where it gets interesting. I could see him attaching the jumper cables, and soon as they were on I hit the key. The motor exploded into life, cranking over as if the battery was fully charged, yet it has so little juice before then the headlights barely lite, and the solenoid only 'clicked'.

How is that possible? You tell me, but I've seen these 'modern' batteries do this nonsense many times.

Jeff

Well, in theory if jumper cables have good contact it will instantly fire up and then act normal from alternator even with a totally bad battery. With that said, batteries sometimes loose just one cell which can do odd things. Best way to check it is do a proper load test on them when fully charged. If .03 is genuinely your only parasitic draw than I would lean towards a bad cell in the battery.

How is that possible?

I would suspect a bad connection between your battery cable and terminal.