Electrical drain occurring. any ideas?

pre-ownedpre-owned Band Wagon
in Electronics, Fueling & Air Conditioning
My '91 wagon is draining it's power while off. My first instinct was possibly a dead battery or maybe alternator. I replaced both to no avail. Took it in to a mechanic, paid $250 for him to tell me something is draining it's power. No...really? He narrowed it down to something that is operating under the same fuse that the power seatbelts use. So i just took out the fuse and it works fine. But my seatbelts no long move (which is just sad in the wagon, one of my favorite parts, lol). My guess is the motor keeps trying to move the belts forward even when they are fully pushed out. But i have no idea how to fix this and i haven't found any other such cases. I figured if anyone had an idea, it would be someone from here. It's either that or pay a mechanic to spend the time necessary to find out whats going wrong (which was estimated to take 7-10 hours, gah!)

Comments

  • bam-bambam-bam Council Member
    So you took out the fuse at the battery for the autobelt? One or both?

    This is a weird one... The belt mechanism is triggered by a switch in the door latch (not the door switch the dome light uses.
  • cbothacbotha Band Wagon
    Find the wiring diagram and trace all the components that are on that circuit. and they unplug one by one.
    Or knowing that seat bolts don't work, try unplugging the motor and see if the drain persits.
  • SiWagonSiWagon Council Member
    Get a short tester.You plug it into the fuse & use this analog meter to follow all the wires till I think the meter spikes.There's the short.
  • rbwdrivenrbwdriven Senior Wagonist
    Most of the sedans I've had with the autobelt contraptions I Change out that contraption of fuse connections sitting on the battery for two fuse holders.

    Also when dealing with a drain.

    9 times out of 10 it is the door switch trigger that gets corroded and gumbed up.

    Take the door switch out (phillips screw) and use a flat blade screw driver to push in tab to disconnect wire from switch.

    Then take a red scotch brite pad to it. I do this with all of mine that are having electrical short issues.

    Problem goes away after that.

    If it still persists then I just order a new one.

    Also before putting it back in I spray it with contact cleaner (can get it from radio shack)
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