Hey guys! Gotta 71 Valiant here for a buddy. Battery is going dead over about 2 days. I disconnected the + terminal and clipped a test light in between the + post and terminal clamp. It lit up, and I started pulling fuses. Pulled every fuse in the fuse block, and the test light is still lit up like a Christmas tree. Is there a circuit(s) that is not fused that I need to be checking? Am I missing something in my test procedure?

I appreciate the help, Moparts family!

Disconnect the B+ wire at the alternator and see if the light goes out, a bad diode can cause a draw.

Make sure the doors are closed and any glove box, trunk or underhood light has the bulb removed.

Pull the headlight bakelite connector/then the dangling connector under the steering column/then the horn relay connector. They are hot all the time & might help you pin down the (unwanted) draw

Thanks so much, Guys! A few more things to check!

Stumpy- Aren't those circuits fused? I'm pretty sure I isolated them already, but I can always check again!

Okay. Checked all those. No luck. Started to unplug the bulkhead connectors to at least narrow the search. Main engine harness unplugged, and the light goes out. Plugged it back in and decided to pull the big nut off the starter relay. Pull those 2 heavy leads and draw is gone. Looks like it is the heavier lead from the relay to the starter. Dead short in the starter?

The draw is in the ~10ga wire that runs from the relay to the starter, not the 4ga (or whatever size it is) that runs right from the battery to the starter.

If you had full voltage in the brown (solenoid) wire to the small terminal (from either the starter large terminal or above from the SR) it would be cranking just like normal operation. As you know the large cable is hot all the time & it almost sounds like some current is bleeding over inside the starter to (likely) the hold in solenoid winding and that is the minor draw (if it was the "pull in" solenoid winding the solenoid rod would be pulled in & the starter would be cranking like normal & you'd have to pull a batt cable to stop it. Holler how it turns out

Ron- I think you read that right. I have the negative side of the battery disconnected. Test light clamp on the negative terminal clamp, spike end into the terminal on the battery. Test light is lit. Removed large nut on starter relay. Under this nut are 2 heavier wires. Red one dirrectly from battery +, brownish wire going down to the starter. Remove red wire from battery +, test light still on. Remove brown wire from post on relay, light goes out. Tried a new relay, same scenario...

Normally you have the large positive cable from the battery to the large "batt" stud on the SR then a seperate large cable from that large "batt" SR stud down to the large terminal on the starter. Then there is a smaller brown (if OE) wire from the SR terminal that has the mini bolt that secures it & this wire goes down to the small "solenoid" terminal on the starter next to the larger starter terminal. Correct so far? not being patronizing just wanting clarification so we can get a handle on this. If the SR was bleeding current down to the solenoid via the brown wire the starter would be energized (that's fairly rare). If the solenoid hold in winding was being energized internally from the starter large terminal (extremely rare) if would feed back to the (brown if OE) wire & there would be a slight draw in the large cable from SR to starter which would show up as a draw you are seeing at the batt & if that is the case pulling the brown solenoid wire would not stop the draw (cuz it is feeding back into it from the starter) but pulling the large cable would. but we're missing something here in how it is wired. Holler back when you can. EDIT reread & lets cut to the chase, take the wire/terminal (11/32" nut) off of the starter solenoid terminal & see if that solenoid terminal with nothing on it is hot & if so R&R the starter & if not see if the wire/terminal you removed is hot & if so the SR is bad (not likely as you replaced it) & see if the yellow wire/terminal at the SR is hot (if so it is being fed from the ign sw or bulkhead crossover) but not likely cuz if it was recieving full voltage the starter would be cranking. I still think something ain't routed right on the wiring but...

My bad. It's in the red wire that goes to the fusible link/ammeter. If I disconnect the ammeter wires, it goes out. If I touch them together, it comes back. That rules out an issue with the ammeter, correct?

Correct, ammeter is OK. With batt disconnected ohm the black (downstream) lead to ground & if there is no draw it will read infinity & if there is a draw & there is, it'll show something. Downstream the black lead goes to the "welded splice" which is a T & it branches off to the (1) fuse box (2)st column ign switch (4) head ight switch (5) windshield wiper motor (6) horn relay) (7) out to alt (diodes). One of them is leaking juice. EDIT & that is ohming the black lead with it disconnected from ammeter

Is that splice under the dash?

And I just realized I haven't tested the horn relay as suggested, cause I'm not sure where it is! On my B-bodies it was bolted to the rad support. No luck here...

yes the welded splice is under the dash, just a bit downstream from the ammeter. The horn relay would likely be on the firewall (eng bay side) EDIT not likely the welded splice has come undone. Go to end components listed & ohm them

Replace that test light with a multimeter. At least you can see the load in amps or milliamps. The test light tells you something is there but not how much.