Battery Drain

[wheeler]

How do you check to find a battery drain? Good Battery (tested it and was good) keeps draining overnight. I'm thinking a ground issue?

[phabib]

Remove one of the posts from the battery and put a good ampmeter (pretty much any digital multimeter will be good enough) in series with it. Any number other than 0 is bad. Then disconnect one item at a time and look at the meter. If the drain drops, but does not go to 0, then you have multiple drains. When you find a drain, leave it disconnected and repeat until the meter shows 0. At that point, the sum of all drains should total the total drain you saw on the battery when you first put the meter. A small difference would just be meter error and is OK.

A ground issue won't drain your battery. It would just keep stuff from working properly when you need it to, unless by ground issue you mean something going to ground that shouldn't.

A drain can also be inside of a wiring harness. If you have some nicked insulation that provides a path to ground even when everything connected to that wire is removed, then you may need to replace the wire itself. I wouldn't look for that until the other stuff had been looked at though.

[thebuggyman1]

I suspect the new motor. My guess would be the solenoid on the carb is getting power when the key is off??????
Most key switches are not set up for a power (+) output w/key on except for the lights.

[wheeler]

Good ideas, I will check them out in the next day or two.

[wheeler]

Buggyman, you are right, the drain is coming from the fuel solenoid. And that is with the key off. Any ideas on how to wire this so I do have power but not when the key is off? Remember I don't know nothin about electric stuff. Thanks

[amphibious drew]

The simplest way would be to put a switch on it. It isn't going to be the best way, but probably the easiest. I always just put a new RI wiring harness on, but I am close to there, and I like everything to be new when done.

[phabib]

I haven't seen your switch, so I can't know for sure but I would guess there is 1 12V supply wire from the battery coming to it. It likely also has a terminal that only gets power when the key is turned to the first position, that's the one that isn't spring loaded to run the starter. That terminal should ALSO have power when you turn the key to crank position. Then you ought to have another terminal that ONLY has power when you go to crank the engine. You already found that one, it goes to your starter solenoid.

What you need to do is find the terminal that has power both in run position and in crank position and run a wire from that terminal to the fuel solenoid. One of those light up screwdrive probe things should be a big help for this kind of investigation.

Whatever you do, don't let the smoke out of the wires! Its a pain to put it back.

[thebuggyman1]

Most small engine key switches do NOT have a power out(+) in the run position. Your options are to replace the key switch with one that does have the (+) in run position, or to put in a switch like Drew said. If you go the switch route, I would buy a double pole switch....That is one that is actually 2 switches in one case. Make one side the power to the solenoid, and the other side the ground from the key switch to the engine kill wire. Doing that will make sure you turn the switch off every time you want to stop the engine,because if the key switch alone was turned off the motor would still run.

If you replace your key switch, I believe this is what you need New Ignition Starter Key Switch w 2 Keys Sears Craftsman AYP Roper 140301 | eBay
Just to be safe, I'd ask before buying. The switch should be available locally at any auto parts store or small engine/lawnmower shop.
I believe this is what you have. John Deere 110 112 140 210 212 214 216 300 312 314 316 Key Ignition Switch New | eBay

[phabib]

I'd go with the new key switch. Putting it in won't really be any more work than adding another switch and its just a cleaner setup to not have that extra toggle switch.

[wheeler]

Hey Thanks for the websites for key switches. Today I removed some stuff that just sort of pis_ed me off. There were turn signals on it and extra lights on the front and back. The mess I had of wiring was unbelievable and as you know turn signals have extra transformers and other stuff that just gets in the way. It is almost impossible to get underneath the dash where the key is especially with the extra wiring I had in the way. I tried to change a light bulb behind the key switch and with all the wires on the Max IV under the dash I could not even get to it. Do you have to pull the inner rubber around the inside of the light to get the whole light out if you need to?

[Tomo]

hi,
In regards to your battery testing
The small engine starters will draw as much power as a small 4 cylinder car [300 amps ]
What this means is the differences between battery brands is huge some will crank 200 amps and some well over 320 amps .Select carefully.

Cold cranking amps is a battery industry figures """completely different""" to actual current draw

While the load is on the expected cranking voltage should be well above 9 volts .
This can be done by anybody with a load tester in less than 5 minutes

tomo

[wheeler]

Curious whether a guy could throw in a bigger battery. The small batteries are good but with the higher cold cranking amps it seems up in my climate (Cold / Minnesota) it would be better. What do you guys think?

[amphibious drew]

Curious whether a guy could throw in a bigger battery. The small batteries are good but with the higher cold cranking amps it seems up in my climate (Cold / Minnesota) it would be better. What do you guys think?

It can be done.

[Tomo]

hi
A battery of CCA [cold cranking amps ] of 400cca or greater is best . A battery of this size should pump out at least 9.0 volts [the higher the better] at 300amp current draw . I ALWAYS test my batteries at the shop prior to purchase .

On a related issue make sure u use at least automotive cable sizes for the main positive [bat to solenoid and solenoid to starter] Secondly the negative or earth cable battery to engine block

tomo

[thebuggyman1]

Curious whether a guy could throw in a bigger battery. The small batteries are good but with the higher cold cranking amps it seems up in my climate (Cold / Minnesota) it would be better. What do you guys think?

If you are going into the wilderness that you have described before (miles from nowhere) and likely to get stuck multiple times......
A full sized battery would definitely be a better idea. I put them in everything. I hate the small ones! One good winching and it gets sucked dry.