Key Off Battery Draw- 1971 Valiant

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.

Magnum,
Did you figure this one out? I seem to be having the same issue with the new mini starter on my Challenger. Battery draining after a couple days, as well as not fully charging while running. I've found voltage on the line that runs to the solenoid on my starter, which when unplugged from the starter relay, is shorted to ground at the starter. My friend measured his starter solenoid post and found 6 ohms through the windings to ground. Mine is a straight short.

What should the that reading be? Anyone else have any ideass?

Thanks,
Chris

if the small (solenoid) terminal with the 11/32 nut on the starter is dead shorted to the starter case then the starter needs to come out. I'm assuming the large starter "batt" stud has no continuity to the starter case. we'll continue on for the draw that is running the batt down and why it ain't charging.

Did you check the connector on the ignition switch where it plugs to the harness. I have seen them melted there a few times.