Logo
FULL SITE MENU

200 EFI Electrical Problem

R

rangerman

New member
"I have a 92' Model 200 HP

"I have a 92' Model 200 HP on a Ranger 396V. Suddenly I have a small drain on my cranking battery that pulls it down over a period of time. It measures about 5 MA at the battery. I pulled all the fuses, which didn't help. I have tracked the source to two wires on the engine. One is the red (hot lead) going to the EFI module. The other is a pair of reds leads going to the back of the engine. The EFI is pulling the most juice, but the other is pulling current as well. Any ideas would sure be appreciated. Could the key switch be passing just enough current to cause this?"
 
"red wrire going to the back i

"red wrire going to the back i am asuming are for power trim and tilt going to solenoids should not drain any power unless being used, computer should not use any power unlesss fuel pump is running all the time or power on purple wire with key off ecm is for fuel management only"
 
"Scott,

Five MA is not enou

"Scott,

Five MA is not enough to cause the battery to drain. Disconnect the engine harness and see if you get the same reading.

Tony"
 
"Tony,
If I disconnect the ma

"Tony,
If I disconnect the main cable to the starter solenoid, the drain goes away. I agree 5 MA isn't much, if my meter is right. Could be the battery is going south, although it will charge up fine. I have left the battery disconnected all week while I am out of town. If it's dead when I get back, it's time for a new battery. If not, it's time for more head scratching."
 
"Old batteries can go bad. Cha

"Old batteries can go bad. Charge the battery to full. Use a battery tester that measures the acid density. Batteries that have been totally discharged for a while, tend to form "sludge" in the bottom of the cell (some kind of lead oxide) that causes a current leak. If you let a fully charged battery sit without any current consumption (disconnected), you will find that it will "selfdischarge". You can verify this with the acid tester. You can also hear bubbling within the cell. If so, the battery is beyond repair.
Robert
Sweden"
 
"Well this is a bit embarrassi

"Well this is a bit embarrassing, but as Paul Harvey says, here's the rest of the story.
After checking my Merc Manual, I found that the Merc charging system can pull up to 20 MA all the time with the key off, so mine is normal.
I unhooked the battery, charged it fully, let it set for over a week and it remained fully charged, so the battery is good.
After thinking the whole thing through, I believe I left one of the depth finders on, which killed the battery over a 2-3 week period. The depthfinder automatically turns itself off when the voltage gets too low, so it wasn't on when I started checking things. Everything has worked fine ever since. I hate it when I invent my own problems. Thanks for everyones help, I did learn some things along the way."
 
Back
Top