Battery drain

[rjbaren]

I'm not sure what your are asking, but here is what I did.
I connected the test light first, the alligator clip to the positive terminal and the pointed probe I jammed into the negative terminal and the light was lit.  It is not an LED bulb.
Next, while the test light was illuminated, I held the positive/red probe of the meter to the positive terminal and then touched the black/negative probe to the negative battery terminal.  There was a small spark, then it smelled and got hot very quickly so I removed the leads of the meter off the terminals.  The light remained on, and the negative cable was not connected to the car.  I had a disconnect installed on the negative side and the negative cable was not connected, just a disconnect terminal with no cable attached.
Was that the way I was supposed to do it?

[SilverBeast]

If you are lucky there may be a fuse in the meter you can replace.

[Pfreen]

Thus, why I suggested disconnecting the battery and measuring the resistance between the positive lead and ground.

[jbcollier]

No, unfortunately.  The meter is fried, at least the 10amp section is.  There is a fuse in the 200ma section.  Other than the meter damage, you are otherwise OK.  I will post a photo of what "in series means"...

[jbcollier]

Test light across the battery:



Ammeter in series with the test light:



You can see that the test light is drawing 44 milliamps.  That's approximate as it is on the very low end of the 10amp scale.  After this I would retest on the milliamp scale for a more accurate reading.

[jbcollier]

Remember an ammeter is a dead-short.  If you put it across the battery, the current through it can be 100s of amps.

[jbcollier]

Mr. Pfreen.  Measuring resistance of the "whole" wiring system at the battery is not very informative.  Capacitors in the system will give misleading readings.  Using an ammeter properly gives a clear, exact picture of what's actually going on.  Good ammeters have fuses to protect themselves from mistakes such as above.

[Pfreen]

I disagree JB, but I will not give my opinion on this again. 

[rjbaren]

OK, so I think I caught a little break.  I replaced the fuse in the meter and saw sort of a bar in the meter that looked like it came unsoldered at one end so I resoldered it.

Now I see how to connect it.  Was this to test my meter?   

Anyway, when I connected the repaired meter as described with the red lead in the 10amp input I got .22   Then I flipped to 200ma still using the 10amp input and I got 2.2.
When I put the red lead into the ma input it spun up and settled at 1  with a lot of space to the decimal point, no zeros.

Next, I did the same thing with my Harbor Freight meter.  I got .22 in the 10amp input and then 2.2 flipping the dial to 200ma.  Lastly I put the red input into the ma input and I got all 0.00s.

[jbcollier]

Good.

Now, with the negative battery cable disconnected, hook the ammeter between the negative battery post and the negative battery cable.  What readings do you get?

[rjbaren]

With the multimeter in the 10amp input I get 0.00 and 0.01kind of bouncing back and fourth.
With the multimeter in the ma input and 200ma I get 2.1
Also, my test light alone flashes about once per second. 
I then removed the inline fuse to the radio and the flashing stopped.
Also, with the radio fuse removed, the reading on the meter in the ma input and 200ma is 1.4

[jbcollier]

It's hard to know if the milliamp reading of 2.1 is 2.1 or, more likely, 21 milliamps, or, worse 210 milliamps.  Leave the radio fuse out and see how your battery does.  Don't wait for it to go dead though.  Check your resting voltage now, and then again in two or three days.

[rjbaren]

I want to put the car in a local show this evening so I will check it when I park it tonight.  But I just checked the voltage now and the battery has been disconnected over night and it measures 12.83.
I will keep you posted on the voltage in a couple of days,

Thanks for your help. 

[rjbaren]

So far, yesterday the battery voltage was 12.95. 
12 hours later the voltage was 12.95
12 hours later the voltage was 12.93
12 hours later the voltage was 12.93

[jbcollier]

Seems ok to me.