Hi all, I'm a disabled vet trying to rectify something that was provided courtesy of two hot rod shops in Loveland CO. I convinced my then wife, now ex-wife to take the car to the Forge in Loveland back in 2014 to get the truck she inherited from her grandfather updated so that it could be a nice daily driver again. Long story short when she got the car back in 2018/2019, the hot rod those guys turned it into has the common parasitic battery drain that a lot of LS swaps tend to get. If she doesn't drive it for 3 or more weeks, the brand new battery is completely drained. I understand that the LS3 has a constant .7 amp draw for memory and what not. When I measure the amperage going to the ECU, I see the .7 amps like I expect. However I've done like 5 minutes of testing and quickly determined that the 18 gauge wire to the battery from the starter and the harness for the cooling fans are pulling a constant 3 amps with the key off and everything shutdown for 30 mins. It might just be me but 3 amps through the starter wire and cooling fan harness when the car should be dormant seems like an odd situation. (I suspect the ignition off the tilt steering column from an 87 Camino that they installed) I need some help trying to isolate the issue so that the car won't be a pain in the *ss to start every time she wants to hop in it and take if for a spin. The shop owner said just put a battery tender on it and refused to diagnose the problem. She just doesn't have the power in the garage to run a battery tender. So the solution he got all crappy about won't even work for her. I figure if I can eliminate the constant voltage to the starter and cooling fans, the battery might quit going dead.
As a bit of a back story, these guys did the following:
1. added a tilt steering column out of an 87 Camino,
2. pulled the dashboard, had it refurbed by that dashboard place in CA
3. Updated the gauges to the dakota gauges using the 87 Camino binnacle for the gauges
4. rewired everything.
5. Installed the LS3 connect and cruise package into the car.
As I said before, I suspect the ignition switch on the column from the 87 Camino but want to make sure I understand the problem completely before I acquire a new switch and install it. I have nephropathy in my hands and legs due to some spinal issues. All that bending and twisting to do the work tends to sap all of my wherewithal and I thought I would ask for help here before I suffered through all that pain only to find out the part I replaced, didn't fix the problem.
Thanks in advance for any assistance,
Keith
As a bit of a back story, these guys did the following:
1. added a tilt steering column out of an 87 Camino,
2. pulled the dashboard, had it refurbed by that dashboard place in CA
3. Updated the gauges to the dakota gauges using the 87 Camino binnacle for the gauges
4. rewired everything.
5. Installed the LS3 connect and cruise package into the car.
As I said before, I suspect the ignition switch on the column from the 87 Camino but want to make sure I understand the problem completely before I acquire a new switch and install it. I have nephropathy in my hands and legs due to some spinal issues. All that bending and twisting to do the work tends to sap all of my wherewithal and I thought I would ask for help here before I suffered through all that pain only to find out the part I replaced, didn't fix the problem.
Thanks in advance for any assistance,
Keith