All of a sudden something is draining my battery. I did a draw on my battery with engine off and it shows 2.6 mA, manual says 3.6 mA is suggested. I have a new alternator & voltage regulator, accel super coil, 327 motor. Charging system checks out ok. Hooked up a Grant wheel and horn but horn doesn't work, not sure why though, haven't gotten into that yet, installed a cheap am/fm radio (no clock or digital functions so radio is off), clock in guages works. The car was fine for a couple weeks and now battery is dead. I have since replaced battery but there is still this draw of 2.6 mA. Is this acceptable or should i look for something? I can't imagine the clock would drain the battery after a couple days. Could the horn relay have any draw on the battery as it's original or at least looks like it.

Amperage draw of 2.6 ma would take forever, almost, to drain the battery.
Two point six amps would drain a battery in a week.

However, you can hook up your ammeter or a test light between the battery cable and battery post and start disconnecting fuses, accessories and alternator. The red wire on the horn relay is power source for the car to disconnect.

If you still have a current draw, you might check the junction block next to the battery. Take it off the rad support and check to see there is rust behind it.

Any convenience lights on? Glove box or trunk? Clock unplugged?

My mistake, its 2.6 amps. The clock is with the guages but how do you turn that off?
Do I have to remove guages to disconnect the wire to turn it off? No lights on.
I pulled the plug out of the alternator and the guage went to zero, why???
The same happened with the voltage regulator, both are new; is that suggesting a grounding problem?

If disconnecting the alt two-wire plug kills the current, hook it back up and disconnect the volt reg connector. If it goes away, then the relay is staying closed for the field.

You might look at the vr connector to see if there is battery voltage on wire #3. This is ign supply voltage, should be off if ign sw is off, for the vr via the GEN light.

Have you tried the trick of inserting a test lamp between the ground cable and the battery (-) terminal while you remove fuses and disconnet things until the light goes out.

2.6A is a huge current draw - 1000 X more than 2.6mA. The test lamp will glow like the sun until you isolate the short. It also will protect your wiring, and fuses from burn-out by regulating the current to a few hundred milliamps.

I have current on the #2 & 3 wire of the voltage reg. connector, now what?
I have not tried using a test light, just using the tester with that same method. I have removed all the fuses as they say to and the draw remains the same. I can watch my battery voltage drop when it's connected.

Number 3 wire is supply from ignition switch.
Number 2 goes tothe alternator.

Electrical current on #3 wire is closing the relay inside the V/R allowing current to go through the alternator field coil, hence, the 2.6 amps.
Could its plug be wired incorrectly or a misplaced wire?
Or ign switch, after years of use, may not be OFF wen turned off. There could be a trail of carbon within the switch from years of turning on & off. Might look and see if the power can be removed from the ign switch.

Electrical system power comes from the horn relay buss bar through the firewall connector, then branched off to two places, ign sw and headlamp switch inside the dash. There might be a worn spot to the #3 V/R wire.

Did you unplug the horns or disconnect the horn relay? I had a similar issue with my horn and unplugged the horns and the horn relay contact was active and drained the battery.

Hi rjg67rs,

Is this a 67 RS? How do you know it's a drain? Maybe it's not charging.

I have a 67 RS with a charging problem which we have just identified. It is a lack of voltage on terminal 4 of the external regulator when the ignition switch is in the 'on' or 'start' position. The voltage on that terminal passes through the regulator out to the alternator on the blue wire and excites the field in the alternator which allows the alternator to begin to generate.

If you put a volt meter on terminal 4 and get zero it won’t begin to charge. When I tested mine it read zero after the car was started, I then applied battery + to terminal 4 and you could tell the alternator kicked in because the car idled down slightly and the voltage went to 14.5 on terminal 4. The battery voltage was 12.5 prior to starting which indicates charging.

In a typical situation the voltage that would be present at that terminal would come from the alt lamp in the cluster, you turn the key and b+ goes to the lamp, through the filament and out the brown wire to terminal 4 of the of the reg. Of course the RS doesn't have that light and I have not been able to find out how Chevy sent the voltage to the reg.

I don't know if this relates to your issue but I thought I would throw it out there. Good luck.

Let me add this; I did change the deluxe wheel to a grant wheel. The horn didn't work before but when I changed it out the horn worked, constantly once I connected the battery. I figured my button was making constant contact with the ring, removed the button and re-assembled. Now my horns don't work and gave up on that for now. I also installed an am/fm radio with dials that I picked up from JC Whitney, a cheap one, not digital and no clock in it. After this work my battery went dead after running the car a couple days before. I have checked the charging system and it is fine, even pulled the positive cable off and the car did not stall. The wiring at the voltage regulator/horn relay, etc. was a mess but mostly intact when I got the car. Maybe I should trace all these wires out. The head light doors are not wired up but can't imagine that would be a problem (the motors don't have a wire coming from them for some strange reason, next project)
What do you mean by a worn spot to the #3 wire?

I also installed an am/fm radio with dials that I picked up from JC Whitney, a cheap one, not digital and no clock in it. After this work my battery went dead after running the car a couple days before. What do you mean by a worn spot to the #3 wire?If the problem of dead battery came up after installing radio, then maybe the installation is faulty.

A worn spot would be the insulation rubbing off between two wires. Common problem to 40-year old wiring, if stll original.

You had said in an earlier post, while monitoring current flow, you unplugged the two-wire connector from the alt and current flow went to zero. Good troubleshooting to this point.

Plug in the alt and unplug the voltage regulator, if current goes to zero, then ignition side of vr is supplying coil voltage for the field relay and it is energized allowing current to flow through the alt field. Ignition switch should turn off current flow through vr to alt, unless there is an alternate path.

Now you suggest the problem happened after installing the radio. Cheap radio, so I don't think this would be the problem, but the wiring of power to the radio might be the source of the extra current path not needed. Only takes a few minutes to check the wiring.

Think back in history before the problem appeared. What has changed since then? Retrace the steps and disconnect items added, check wiring at horn relay, unhook the new horn button, etc.

OK, this is weird. I cleaned up the horn relay connections, relay ground connection from rs headlights, hooked my amp meter and it doesn't register anything, (stayed at 0.00) no drawdown.
I hooked up a test light and it lit up my garage. Unhooked alt. plug, vr plug, horn wire from relay, radio power; all individually and light didn't dim.
Haven't tried pulling the fuses with this method although didn't show anything before using meter. Any ideas where else to look?

With the test light hooked between the battery post and the disconnected cable, either polarity, and the light shines, then start pulling fuses to localize the current draw.

You could also unplug power sources for those circuits not having fuses.
There is one red wire on the horn relay buss bar with a fusible link. This lead powers the car from the battery if the alternator is not spinning.

If you're saying that there is not current draw from the horn relay on, then focus on the horn relay itself or perhaps the terminal block behind the battery has a bunch of wet crud behind it or something causing it to leak current into the radiator support.

2.6A will create some heat. That's 12 X 2.6 or 31 Watts which will get pretty toasty.

Here's one; I installed a new voltage regulator; I've seen in other posts that there are grommets used to install it. The original one didn't have rubber grommets and should this be installed with grommets or does it need the radiator support for ground as there is no wire for grounding it.

If the VR is bolted to the rad support without the rubber wellnuts, I would not worry about it. Mine doesn't have any.

A good ground connection does need to be made so the alt case and VR chassis have less than a couple ohms of resistance between them.

I just did the test light connection and pulled each fuse indivdually and the only fuse that turned off the light was the clk/ltr fuse. I pulled the alt. plug out; nothing, same with the vr plug. Unhooked the red wire fom the horn relay and of course the light went out. Would the console guage clock drain a battery that much?

The regulator must be grounded. The rubber well nuts are there just for vibration dampening. I believe the OEM had a metal strap that bypassed one of the well nuts to provide ground.

I have a new one and there doesn't seem to be any connection for a gound.

Would the console guage clock drain a battery that much?Only if the solenoid is stuck and the contact points are burnt closed.

Clocks of the time era are spring ran, like older wrist watches, had to wind them up everyday. Clocks have a solenoid so when the spring winds down, maybe every hour to two hours, the contact set would close, solenoid would energize for a stroke, and spring is wound. And the cycle goes on.........

New regulators will not have the ground strap, you will have to provide one. There might be a spade terminal on the chassis side for you to attach a grouns strap/wire. Or, just put a jumper underneath the mounting bolt and run the wire over to the headlamp ground screw.

It's not the clock, had pulled the fuse and the battery went dead again (in two days)...the search continues. I'll ground the vr with something, but wouldn't the vr mounting bolts provide a ground as it is attached to the metal support?

If the support has good paint on it, its not grounding. Try star washers to cut thru the paint and give you the ground then.

If you pulled the CLK/LTR fuse and the test lamp went out, can't see it glow in pitch darkness, then the battery is not charged enough to its full capacity or it can't hold a charge.

Have you removed the little junction block next to the battery to make sure there is not any rust/corrosion between the block and rad support to avoid another path for current?

It's a brand new battery and was testing out at 12.6 volts when the light went off.
I have not taken that junction block off but will tonight.

You pull the CLK/LTR fuse and light goes out; what does the ammeter read?
Might replace the fuse and unplug each item individually, the clock & the lighter, to see the one drawing current.

If battery still goes dead, there must be some current drawn?
Otherwise, a good battery ought to stay charged for about two weeks at the least.

Herein lies the problem, my ammeter stopped working or at least it just reads zeroe's now, even tried another one and still read zeroe's. That was part of the reason I tried the light test. Something is draining the battery just not sure what. I keep thinking it has something to do with the horn.

You can test the ammeter with the test light in series with the battery to see if the meter still works.

It appears you'll have to start at the battery and work your way forward, er, rearward, and unplug anything you find along the way to kill the current being drawn. You have it located to the CLK/LTR circuit so far.

Unless, the new battery does not have a full charge. True, it may read 12.6 volts, but this may be just a surface charge as the term is called. Crank the engine for 5 seconds and let the battery set. Check later and measure the charge; battery should self charge back to 12.6 volts.

So far, if you leave the battery connected, the battery dies.
If you disconnect the battery, it stays charged.

The Lighter circuit also has dome light, and this includes both door switches and headlamp switch - remember the knob all the way to the right(CW) turns on the dome light, glovebox light, and LT & RT kickpanel lights, if equipped.

I took the car out on Friday and tried to start it on Sunday, barely turned it over. I have since charged it, cleaned the junction box behind the battery which wasn't that bad and hooked up a ground wire to the regulator. The guages and tach is also on the clk/ltr circuit.
I have over 12 volts at the junction box, horn relay, alt. and the #2 & 3 pin on the v/r plug. Which wire do I un-hook at the ignition switch to see if that is the cause of the drain. Dome lights are off as well.
What is typically the cause of a drain; bad gound or faulty device?
Thanks for your help by the way.

If gauges and tach are on the same power wire, battery power, they should not.
Their power needs to come from either switched ignition or switched accessory power source, not straight battery power.

Brown wire on ignition switch.

I don't think you have a bad ground nor a faulty device, just a miswire.

You're welcome.

Unless, the new battery does not have a full charge. True, it may read 12.6 volts, but this may be just a surface charge as the term is called.

What sort of battery? a lead acid or one of these modern high storage calcium/calcuim.
A lead acid charges at 13.8/14V a ca/ca at 14/14.2 V
If u use a ca/ca over time it has stuff all storage.

If lead acid, have you checked each cell with a hydrometer?

engine off and it shows 2.6 mA
With a draw of mA thats going to take months to flatten the battery...check the battery rating and do the maths...

Is the alternator charging correct?

I must have blown the fuses in my ammeter, replaced them and it works now. Reading 1.8 amps now, down from 2.6. Removed vr clip and light went out. Re-connected it and started jiggling the wires and light started blinking. The fusible link looks like it needs to be replaced. Do you replace them with another fusible link or is there a better way to do it now?

Fusible link can be purchased from the local Help aisle at most parts stores, or replace it with the same length of same gauge of wire.

My book reads 20 AWG wire for a #10 AWG feed for a '67.

I still think you have battery voltage on the brown wire to the VR and you should not. Kill the voltage, kill the battery drain.

OK thanks and yes I still have voltage on the brown wire. Next step will be to check ignition.

OK think we have it fixed. Cleaned up some connections and hooked up ammeter and it now reads 4 mA now, which I think is good. Checked charging system and it checks ok, with engine running voltage stayed above 13.2 volts with load. With ignition off though I still have power (12.8v) on the 2 & 3 wire for the vr. The 2 wire is the white wire to the alt and the 3 wire is the power wire from the main splice. With key on I have power to #4 wire. Everett you said the brown wire shouldn't have voltage and it doesn't, that is #4 wire, manual shows it to be brown as well. Should there be power to alt (white wire) with key off?

Here ya go, taken from a sticky at the head of this forum:

Key off:

Blue wire, alt F, pass side of alt..... 0 v
White wire, Alt R, drivers side........ .06v, call it zero

Alt blue wire goes to top term on reg.
Alt white wire goes to second term on reg
3rd term on reg, red(orange) wire with fusible link, always 12v
4th term on reg, brown wire, 0 v

key on, engine not running
gen light on
alt blue 10.5v

4th term on reg, 12 v
no other changes

engine running

Alt blue F 11-13 volts These 2 vary with RPM, F goes down when rpm goes up
Alt white R 5-10 volts goes up with rpm

reg brown 13 v

Hope this helps.

Congrats! Reads like you may have found the problem. Four milliamperes is almost nothing.

Thanks for all your help

You're welcome.
Keep an eye on it.
It may crop up again.