how do you check for electrical draw

[Reefer Rae]

disconnect the negative battery cable, hook a volt meter inline and see how many volts are being used..

This but set the dvom on amps , if it's adjustable set it to 1amp and it should be below 50 miliamps . Pull fuses till it drops to under 50 then check everything on that circuit .

[garycrist]

Test light. If it doesn't light the light, you don't have to worry.

[BERNIE MOSFET]

Voltage will give a very vague readback.

Get a multimeter and bring it down to milliamps.

Amp = current/power
Voltage = pressure or speed.

Not quite, but I get what you are trying to say. Speed would be a better analogous term for current because amperage actually measures charge (Coulombs) per second.

Pressure works for Voltage as far as the fluid analogy, but even then it's not quite accurate or such an easy thing to explain. Voltage in its most basic concept is the potential for an electron to move from one point to another. That potential is determined by the electric field and voltage is a measure of electric field strength. How fast an electron will move in the field is determined by the resistivity or conductivity of the material the electron is in. That's where Ohm's law comes about.

Together they determine power.

[TEAMJACOB]

Instead of a bright light on the test light, it is now a dim light and fades to barely lit at all in a few seconds. Does this mean I found it and fixed it? It was just staying brightly lit

[Reefer Rae]

Sounds like it

[jw33]

Instead of a bright light on the test light, it is now a dim light and fades to barely lit at all in a few seconds. Does this mean I found it and fixed it? It was just staying brightly lit

Yes, now start isolating things on the circuit that you pulled the fuse for.

[Rreemo]

Make sure your hood light and/or interior lights aren't causing the brighter light while you are testing...the fading from bright to very dim is usually the interior light cycling off.

Most common circuits to draw on you are those that are energized with the key off.

When I was a dealership wrench the #1 most common I saw was in relation to the cig lighter, and in Mustangs it was pretty frequently due to a penny or piece of change that had found it's way into the lighter socket....since a lot of folks use their ashtray as change holders. I also recall the clockspring and alternator being pretty common too.

[rusty shackleford]

Not quite, but I get what you are trying to say. Speed would be a better analogous term for current because amperage actually measures charge (Coulombs) per second.

Pressure works for Voltage as far as the fluid analogy, but even then it's not quite accurate or such an easy thing to explain. Voltage in its most basic concept is the potential for an electron to move from one point to another. That potential is determined by the electric field and voltage is a measure of electric field strength. How fast an electron will move in the field is determined by the resistivity or conductivity of the material the electron is in. That's where Ohm's law comes about.

Together they determine power.

actually pressure is the perfect analogy for voltage. pressure in a fluid system behaves the exact same way as voltage in an electrical system when modeled mathematically.

[TEAMJACOB]

Thanks for everyones help. I was able to track it down and fit it. Turned out to be the gauges on the pod

[SSMAN]

It does light up...

Start pulling fuses till it goes off. This will be your problem area

[fordracer2]

To see of you have one?

Check battery voltage with leads off, hook leads up and check for a variance.

There will always be a draw because of the ECM and radio. But there is a certain amount of miliamp draw that is no bueno. I think anything over 30 or 40 milliamps is bad.

How do you find where it's at?

Simple, pull fuses until the draw goes away.

Locate said fused circuit, find the problem and fix it.

Who is this? haha lmao