My parasitic draw never went away and I've been unhooking the battery when I get back home, Not very convenient and the van usually has to learn in order to idle well. Had been kind of thinking the radio was part of the problem and the radio was out of it so I messed with it yesterday, but my meter wouldn't register on the 10 amp scale. Thinking the fuse is blown. Got out my freebe Centec from harbor frt. and it seemed to be working fine. Since I had figured out the fuse situation on the always live system I found that removing the fuse resulted in less of a draw, but still way too much, The least amount I saw was 190 ma. I also figured out after going through the manual that the fuse for the rear window heater that always showed a draw is spliced and supplies power to the constant on fuse. I'm down to the alternator. I think I can remove the fuse that ties the charging circuit buss bar to the other buss bar in the pdc and then see where I'm at.
My question is if an alternator has an issue that causes parasitic draw, does it perform ok as there is no issue with the charging performance.
Just wish I could come to these conclusions faster and not get sidetracked. I read something that steered me away from being the alternator and can't remember what that was. If unhooking that fuse gets rid of the draw then I will get the alternator tested and see what they say.

 

If something is jumpered over to switched bus, there may be a reason some of those systems are switched..... too high a draw when the alt isn't charging would be right at the top of the list. I would have a close look at everything on both sides of those circuits, and see who is powering what.

 

a parasitic draw is never cause by the alternator because the alternator doesn't draw power from the battery, it sends power to the battery to charge it when the vehicle is running. now if the alternator isn't putting out enough voltage then there isn't enough power going to the battery to recharge it and the battery will die, first thing I would do is charge the battery to 100% then I would do a dynamic test of the battery using a scope to check if the battery is bad if its good I then I would check the condition of the cables and make sure the both cables are tight and the battery has a good ground. then I would do a test on the alternator to verify if the alternator is bad. if everything is good then I would run a parasitic draw test and see what is on when if should be off. all vehicle have some parasitic draw. so what you are looking for is a component that is staying on when it should be off that causing excessive draw from the battery.

 

A parasitic draw can be caused by an alternator when a diode goes bad and allows current to flow both ways.

However it does not appear to be my problem. I disconnected the cable from the pdc that comes from the alternator and nothing changed. Still had 190 ma at it's lowest. My next course of action was to disconnect the ignition switch which showed no change other than it did drop to 170 ma. Now the only place I can think of there being a problem is in the main cables from the battery or the starter solenoid. Open to any opinions or direction to go you guys can come up with.
I just did think that the headlight switch might be the issue. As far as I know the lights can be turned on without the ignition switch being moved.

 

Start by pulling fuses one at a time, and see if the draw goes away. If it does, it'll be something on the circuit causing the issue.

 

Already done that. There was no change when any fuse was pulled. Even did the ones along with the relays in the pdc.

 

Did you get the IOD fuse in the fuse block on the side of the dash? Or, wherever it is they put them in vans.

 

What is the iod fuse? Never mind. I googled it and that is what I mentioned in my initial post. I called it the always live/constant on fuse. It's in the pdc.

 

Isn't there one in the fuse block inside as well???? There is on my truck.

 

Not sure about that. I pulled them all and nothing changed on the meter.