Solenoid killing battery overnight- need wiring advice

On Monday I moved all of the wires to the one post of the solenoid, then turned the solenoid master kill on the dash switch to "off". I left for a business trip out of town and got back last night. Tried to start the jeep this morning.... dead battery. Not totally dead, but drained enough so that it wouldn't start.

I thought that was supposed to totally bypass the solenoid?

How can I pinpoint exactly what is draining my battery?
 
I would think it should have. That's interesting.

I have two of your amps here too by the way. They got left in the back seat of my truck when I dropped stuff off at your place.
 
REDLYNER said:
On Monday I moved all of the wires to the one post of the solenoid, then turned the solenoid master kill on the dash switch to "off". I left for a business trip out of town and got back last night. Tried to start the jeep this morning.... dead battery. Not totally dead, but drained enough so that it wouldn't start.

I thought that was supposed to totally bypass the solenoid?

How can I pinpoint exactly what is draining my battery?
Click to expand...

This is the symptom of an optima battery that's been fully discharged before too... get rid of that turd.
And if it is a normally closed solenoid--as it seems--it is being powered when the switch is off. That's where your amp draw is. Would be pulling two or three amps all of the time. Disconnect the switching wires going to the solenoid since you've already bypassed it.
 
Here's the overall problem: This kill switch is supposed to NOT be bypassed and worked around, etc etc. Only reason I'm doing all of this is that I just need a temporary solution so I can drive the jeep. I really need a permanent fix so that I have a kill switch that doesn't drain the battery. The Optima is brand new, so even if it isn't as good as the old school Optimas, it should last longer than two months.
 
Put an ammeter across the battery terminals with everything switched off.

Edit... not across the terminals... inline with the positive terminal. Probably better to start from the fuse panel, though.

But I'm with Braxton -- if you hurt the Optima, the radio presets might be drawing it down over a 4-5 day stretch. Or it never got fully/properly charged in the first place. Or you've got a completely unrelated draw due to some other electrical malfunction -- which is where troubleshooting loads with the ammeter comes in.
 
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I would either look into a latching type relay that doesn't draw power when when "latched" or keep it simple and legal and install a flaming river drag car style disco under the hood with a lever inside on the dash. Or the manual switch shawn posted earlier. Besides, it's a racecar now anyway.
 
I installed that switch in the trailer on Tuesday night to disconnect the house batteries when it's not being used. Worked out pretty sweet.... except for the part where I bought loop terminals with 5/16" holes, anyway. The drill opened them up to 3/8" easily enough. :lol:
 
braxton357 said:
Besides, it's a racecar now anyway.
Click to expand...


The goal is to have an Ultra4 car hidden under my daily driver TJ, and it's almost there. It's these last minor issues that need to be fixed. I can have everything on for an Ultra4 race in an afternoon, but instead of it taking 4 hours to swap everything, I'd like it to take two hours. It's my daily driver, I'm taking it to the gym tonight, I'm taking it and my wife to the bar tomorrow night. I drive it to the airport for weeklong business trips and I need it to start when I land.

DD'ing this thing is what makes it different than all of the other guys in the 4500 class, as a matter of fact, I'm hitting the dash with armor all this evening :D. That's why I'm looking for a clean solution.
 
As far as that goes, if youve put all the wires on the battery side of the solenoid, then pull the fuse they put between the batt terminal and + switching post, the solenoid would essentially not be there at all but still be easy to put back into use. If your battery still dies then there is something else. You've only got a few 12v+ wires there, turn everything off and pull each off, turn your multimeter to ammeter, put a probe on the batt+ and the other on each wire...if any are pulling more than a few milliamps, it's probably the problem.
 
Solenoid is ground activated. There is always + to the solenoid. It activates when the - circuit is connected. This connection happens from the small switch mounted in the dash.

When the switch on the dash is OFF (down), the solenoid is NOT connecting the two large posts.

When the switch on the dash is ON (up, - connected), the solenoid IS connecting the two large posts....powering the car.


Just so you're all on the same page.
 
Right, ground activated. Painless uses a fused link from the battery + terminal on the solenoid to power the + switching terminal. Pull the fuse and it can no longer draw any power, put all of the 12v+ wires on the battery terminal and it only acts as a junction block. And if it draws 3 amps while off then it would have to be normally closed relay that uses 12v to disco the battery and 0v to connect the battery. Unless I'm missing something?
 
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