Hey guys I have a 1998 Ram 1500 318 V8.My problem is that if I leave my posts connected it drains the battery in a day or two.Any help?????Alternator is still good and battery is fairly new.

 

You sir have a short somewhere or you have some bare wire that is grounding the battery out. Get the battery tested and the alternator tested just to make sure.

 

yea thats def. chaffed and touching wires

 

Ok I'm 18 and want to get this truck working smoothly.So where do I start in finding these chaffed and touching wires?

 

its the alternator guarantee it, mine did same but when opened up the bearing was shot. It will register fine but really it isn't

 

I heard that if it's bad though and you unplug the battery the truck will shut off but it stays on and runs strong.

 

ok now that we are talking about batteries could someone help me I have a 95 ram 1500 5.2 with a battery that is only 1year old. I got in my truck the other day and started it up let it warm up for five mins then drove 12 miles to the bank. I was in the drive through waiting in line for 5mins with the truck idleing and the heat on got up to the window shut the truck off so I could hear went to start it up dead batt.

Edit: I do have underdrive pulleys never had a problem until now

 

hang on jedi, you're getting bad info and you're about to ****up.

NEVER unplug the battery, alternator, pcm, or sensors on a modern, computer controlled truck while its running. the pcm performs the voltage regulation function and you'll **** up something expensive.

if your truck is charging up fine, then there's nothing wrong with your alternator. what you should do though, is visit autozone or similar and let them do a free test of your battery. you might have a weak battery and it has been cold as hell lately. a load test is the only good way to check it.

you can test the alternator yourself with a voltage meter. battery should read about 12 volts with engine off and 14 with engine running. if so, then electrically, its fine.

what's most likely happening is a low draw short in the radio, amp, or pcm, or bulb or something. check the obvious things first - underhood light, dome light, etc. a short will be limited to only one fuse circuit, so when you can identify which fuse is still drawing current, you can begin to narrow it down.

you can perform this test with a digital multimeter, testing one fuse circuit at a time. set the meter to measure current in milliamps, pull each fuse one at a time, probe each leg of the fuse and check for current draw. practice on one with low draw like a dome light. you'll have some draw in IOD and maybe the radio (radio memory). you shouldn't have any draw in the others.

 

^The force is strong with this one, listen to him. Chafed or rubbing wires would more likely cause a short, not a drain, and would probably blow a fuse.

 

here's a similar new thread that just got started.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/search....archid=1389030

some google results on parasitic battery drain.
best one --- http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_runs_down.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2249402_find...ery-drain.html
http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/hweb4.pdf page 14