318 engine. Battery will die if vehicle is left for more than about a week - I put my cheap meter on it to find that there is about a 1 amp draw on the battery when the ignition is off and the key is out. Any thoughts on how to troubleshoot this would be most appreciated. thx, mike

 

do you have any aftermarket parts like remote starter, alarm or stereo?

 

I would start by leaving the meter hooked up so you can monitor it and start pulling 1 fuse at a time until the draw on the battery drops. This may isolate what system is the problem. Some radios/stereos have a constant draw for the clock so the drop will have to be significant for that system.

 

Awesome..easily tracked down the problem using this method!! Thanks!!!

 

Glad it helped. What was wrong?

 

The brake switch came out of adjustment...no doubt from removing the brake booster to get to the valve cover...so, one more quick question - how can I tell if the original engine is in the truck? No big deal, I'm just curious - I don't know the history of the truck since the previous owner (that bought it new, btw) is deceased, but the rumor is that it may have had the engine replaced at some point. It might help explain some of the problems I've been encountering, particularly, the crank shaft pulley coming loose..... btw, the thing runs like scalded dog now!!

 

i think it would be hard tell if an engine was replaced unless they replaced it with an engine from a different year. there should some numbers on the side of the engine block that might help if you can read them. there may even be numbers on the exhaust manifolds. the exhaust manifolds on my 81 make me think the 318 i have is out of an 84.

 

I don't know of any place out there that is doing anything with numbers matching in our trucks. There are places to check this kind of thing for older muscle cars and popular vintage cars especially corvettes. Numbers matching is the term in the restoration world for what you are looking for if you want to search around. This site shows the numbers from a Challenger T/A engine for example. These are the numbers you are going to need to pursue this subject, if the info is available at all. Good luck.

http://www.aarta.com/numbers_matchin...ing_311229.jpg

 

Thx to both of you...I'll let you know if I make any headway....!