edrach

A car battery has typically 80 Ampere-hours of capacity. The battery would discharge in about 10 hours; so the drain is 8 amps/hour. This won't even blow the fuse (if there were one in-line) much less the fusible link.

Rats, it's in the harness somewhere (maybe). I was hoping it would be in the alternator. Plug in the alternator and measure the resistance at the battery terminals again.

That's actually a good thing since it indicates the short is not in the wiring. Next step: Take the meter and touch one probe to the case of the alternator and the other to each of the three connections and see what the meter tells you.

I think we're almost there, but don't jump to that conclusion just quite yet. Fix the bad wiring and check that the meter reads 1.00 with everything connected first.

I have service manual for '84; should be the same for your '83. Fusible links are green, red and red. If the service manual doesn't mis-lead me, that's Fusible link 1, 2, and 3. Fusible link 2 goes directly to the ignition switch and to the alternator. To isolate this further, put the center red back in and unplug the harness to the ignition switch (does the meter go back to 1.00?). If not, disconnect both of the wires to the alternator (does the meter go back to 1.00 now?).

I'll be working a terminal checkpoint with Qman and Dr. RX on Saturday. I've got a family comitment on Sunday so I'll have to head home early.

.003 is a pretty good reason for the drain you are seeing; it's almost a dead short. If you want to continue this (I know it's frustrating, but you're on the right track), take out each fuse one at a time and check the reading to see if the .003 changes. It should get to be a big number or indicate offscale when you find the circuit causing the drain. If all the fuses are removed and you still get the .003 reading, pull the fusible links one a time and take a resistance reading (upside down horseshoe; and no, you don't sound stupid) each time. Good luck. As to the battery condition for draining it all the time and recharging. It shouldn't degrade the battery as long as it doesn't sit discharged for a long period of time. Charge it up and leave it charged. No point in connecting it again for the time being.

I would find it strange also.

Another question.....did this carb come with the engine you recently installed that happened about the same time as the battery drain?

I've never heard of that. But that might be your parsitic drain. A solenoid holding a vacuum line closed; removing the battery removes power from the solenoid and results in the sucking noise.

Probably a moot point that it failed like that. Hard to tell by the photos but looks like the lining was worn down close to the rivets. Likely very close to failing anyway.

Connie, NorthWet has the exact sequence needed to check out where this discharge is located. Along with a primer on electrics. The water/plumbing analogy is quite accurate. Only difference is that you can't see the electron flow and the electrons won't spill out of the wiring like water flows out of a pipe. Again, this Board is not about who's smarter than anyone else, but helping out when one's own special expertise will be useful. Hang in there, Connie, we're all just trying to help.

Connie, we both know that there is a drain on the battery. Your voltage readings and overnight losses tell you that. But the voltage readings don't tell you anything about what is causing the drain. Drop me a PM with your phone number (I had it once but can't find it right now) and I'll talk you through some initial testing to see where this problem might be.

GD is right on the money. Electrical problems can be a pain, but it's not black magic. I use a two pronged approach. Throwing parts at it based on past experience is quick and easy if you have enough data to support the technique, but can prove frustrating since you spent time (and sometimes money) and don't have a good outcome. But sometimes, the quick attempt yields results if you're lucky. The methodical engineering approach takes longer but is usually always successful in tracking down the culprit. Even if you haven't resolved it along the way, knowing what items were eliminated as the cause is progress.

Okay, Thanks for the update on the battery. I took your comments about the 15 minutes to charge it at face value. Just so we're sure, you did fully recharge the battery after it was drained; correct? Also, an update, I measured our '82 Brat as I described and found the resistance I measured at greater than 20 Meg-ohms (i.e. offscale). So what's the resistance reading with your coupe? By the way, do you know the charge current on your battery charger?

Connie, I finally have to step in and add my two cents to what you're doing. You can't charge a discharged battery in 15 minutes on the alternator. You might be chasing your tail here thinking you lost all charge overnight when in reality, the battery was only 10% charged to start with. It wouldn't take much draw to drain off that 10% overnight. Get, borrow, or rent a decent charger and FULLY charge your battery. When it's fully charged take it to your friendly neighborhood autoparts store and have them LOAD TEST the battery to be sure it is fully charged AND a good battery. Enough on the battery side. Now for the drain. A bad ground will not drain your battery. A bad ground adds resistance which will cause LESS drain. However, a partial ground somewhere which shouldn't be grounded can cause your excessive drain. You have a digital multimeter now. As someone else said, connect the DMM between the positive and negative battery terminals (no battery in the car, or the battery fully disconnected) and check the resistance. It should read infinite or really, really high. Something in the kilo-ohm range is probably normal (I'll check the reading on our '82 Brat as soon as it's light out and give you a number from a car that's not draining the battery). Any reading below 1000 ohms might be suspicious. Anything below 100 ohms is very bad. Let me know what you're reading and we'll go from there. All this time, your battery should be on the charger. Once it's fully charged we can try to figure out what's causing the drain.

I'm partial to Redline 75W-90NS.

Having gone through three kids who used all of our early Subarus sequentially, we had multiple spare keys made and one emergency key hidden in our lockbox. Make yourself some spares from the masters you have now just in case you lose one or both.

Glad to hear that you might have found the battery drain source. Exhaust should have been a bolt in, but you never know until you try it. As you could see from the condition of the pipe it would have been a shame to toss it.

I won't argue with your choice of lubricants, but our locksmith swears by tri-flow.

Sorry, but I'm going to suggest my favorite battery charger too. I bought it at Harbor Freight two years ago for $60 or so and it's saved me a ton on batteries. Having bought my share of batteries at PAP, this allowed me to check out the battery quickly and return the junk ones within a short period of time for a refund. It will tell me if the battery has a shorted or open cell and watching the charge current go down gives me a good indication on whether the battery is taking a charge or not. Lots of other features available. http://www.battery-rechargeable-charger.com/vector-VEC1097A-car-battery-charger.html

It could be the ignition lock has a few sticky parts. Get some tri-flow lubricant (squeeze bottle, not spray) and put a few drops onto the key and try the ignition lock a few times. With luck it will get better.

On the older gen cars, the key code is only on the front passenger side lock cylinder. 'Don't know if newer gen cars added it on the driver's side. It shouldn't take you more than 15 minutes to remove the door panel and slip an inspection mirror near the lock cylinder and read the code. Once you have that, any decent locksmith can cut you a master key.

One issue that hasn't been discussed is whether your car is FWD only or 4WD on demand. I think the intermediate pipe is different for each....at least it is on the EA81 wagons since the 4WD version has to clear the rear diff. The reason I bring this up is that in the beautiful relatively rust free NW, used and usable exhaust parts can still be found. That being said, a quality muffler shop should be able to fab what you need without breaking the bank. Good luck.

You might talk to Subarutex about the artwok and such. I know he's in that business.