L245DT battery drain

[chinooklr]

Hello, I recently bought a L245dt and the ignition switch was bad so I replaced it. The tractor starts and runs great, however, when I park it overnight there is a slow drain on the battery and after a couple of days the battery is dead. I checked the wiring on the ignition switch and I have only one heavy red wire going to the hot lead on the switch, which the kubota mechanic said was correct.

I also pulled all four fuses to see if one of those circuits was draining the battery, and that was not the problem.

Any ideas of what may be draining the battery?

 

[rbargeron]

Hello, I recently bought a L245dt and the ignition switch was bad so I replaced it. The tractor starts and runs great, however, when I park it overnight there is a slow drain on the battery and after a couple of days the battery is dead. I checked the wiring on the ignition switch and I have only one heavy red wire going to the hot lead on the switch, which the kubota mechanic said was correct.

I also pulled all four fuses to see if one of those circuits was draining the battery, and that was not the problem.

Any ideas of what may be draining the battery?

Are you sure it's a good battery? I've had batteries that go dead in a few days - even new ones sometimes can't hold a charge. After charging it up try disconnecting the positive cable and see if it stays up a few days.

Bad diodes in the alternator can drain a battery - but usually the charge light will come on dimly with the key off. The test would be similar - with the battery fully charged, disconnect the alternator and see if the battery holds up without use.

 

[chinooklr]

I'm sure it's not the battery because if I disconnect the negative terminal it will hold a charge for several days at least. I will try disconnecting the alternator but there should not be any power going to the alternator when the ignition switch is shut off. I know that the alternator wires are red/white and they are not getting power at the switch.

 

[jimbo64]

let us know how this plays out----curious

 

[chinooklr]

Will do.

 

[rdsaustintx]

Long as you are pulling the negative cable off, put an ammeter inline and see if there is any current draw. If so, start pulling connections to see what stops it. Simple.

Can't think of anything except a bad alternator / voltage regulator causing that, but don't know your tractor....

 

[Lindsey]

A simple way to see if one has a drain is to disconect the ground from batt. then connect a 12v test light between the the disconnected batt cable and neg bat post in series if the light glows you have a drain the briter the higher a drain can do same with a amp meter use that test all the time in the shop also if when you connect the ground and you get aspark something is on or causing a drain . now leave the test light connected and start disconecting when light goes out you have the problem.also a wet dirty batt can cause a drain you can measure the the drain just by touching the top of the batt with the probes of a volt meter move them around and see how the volt meter reacts

 

[chinooklr]

Thanks for the tips! I will check it out today.

 

[chinooklr]

So it looks like you guys were right, problem with the alternator. I used a 12v light to check for the drain when I pulled off the neg. terminal, and it lit up. I could hear a clicking noise each time I connected the neg. terminal, so I tracked that down to a small electrical box under the dash- starter relay maybe? Anyway the wire with power going into that was white with blue stripe. That wire was coming from the alternator. Unplugging the plastic plug with three wires at the alternator stopped the drain.

So now it is into Kubota to see if I need a new alternator or if I can get this one repaired...

Thanks for the help, there are some good mechanics on this forum.

 

[Festoolification]

Doesn't sound like your problem but I had the same parasitic drain on the battery. Disconnecting and reconnecting I could hear a relay clicking on and off - turned out to be the hazard light circuit - all the wires had been snipped so I had no idea what was being powered and what wasn't. Just pulled the appropriate fuse until I get all the light circuits back up and running and all the cabling checked out.