JD 5205 voltage drain on battery

[blehmann]

The battery is draining to nothing if the tractor sits for a few days without use. I put a new battery in on December 31, so that is not an issue. Yesterday I put a charge on the battery and decided to check for voltage drain with the switch in the off position. I found that there is a 125 mileamp drain happening in the fuel circuit. I unplugged both wires at the fuel pump and the wire down lower on the block, probably coolant temperature, but the drain is still happening. What baffles me is that with the switch off, there shouldn't even be any power in that circuit. Just imagining things, I suppose that if there were some greasy dirt in the fuse block, there could be some power bleeding across from a hot leg into some of the other circuits that normally only have power when the switch is turned on.

Has anybody ever run across this problem before?

 

[blehmann]

I think that I found it. I was one column off on the legend and the problem is in the switch. I cleaned it good and gave it a carburetor cleaner bath. The drain is now down to 4 mile-amps so I'll see if the battery will hold a charge.

 

[CobyRupert]

I think that I found it. I was one column off on the legend and the problem is in the switch. I cleaned it good and gave it a carburetor cleaner bath. The drain is now down to 4 mile-amps so I'll see if the battery will hold a charge.

Cool :cool2:

If 4mA still drains the battery, and you don't want to chase it, a cutoff switch on the battery neutral should solve leakage. Also doubles as a security feature.

FYI: "milli-amp": 1/1000th of an amp, "milli" meaning 1/1000th (e.g. milligram, millimeter, milliliter, millivolt, millisecond, etc..), from Latin: mille: "t�housand"

 

[blehmann]

I actually had thought about a cut-off switch yesterday but then I slept on it and decided that it had to be a bleed over problem. 4 Milli-amps isn't much but 125 is an eighth of an amp and given enough time, it can pull a battery down. I may put a cut-off switch in anyway. I'm not concerned about theft due to where I live, but I can see where it might come in handy with grandkids around the place that want to drive the tractor.