Thanks Wade, my knowledge regarding electrical systems, like so many, is weak at best. I know there must be a power source, a ground, and clean connections, but little in the way of troubleshooting. That's why my my neighbor Bob has taken the lead on this episode. Although he's a ringer for the Geico caveman, he's like Good Will Hunting where mechanicals and electrical systems are concerned; in between systematic testing he offers up layman-like explanations to help my understanding.
With Bob's help and and welcome instruction (ASE certified in brakes, tune-up, and alectrical through 1986 when he was at that time employed at a local Goodyear) we connected a multi meter yesterday evening and proceeded to go through each fuse with no change in volts. We also checked direct current items such as dome and cargo lights and door switch to rule those out.
The computer has two pin connectors, one large and one small; when unplugging the smaller of the two, there is no voltage drop. When unplugging the larger of the two, volt reading drops from 12 to 5 1/2. When connecting to a spare computer I have, there is no drop. We made sure this second computer was grounded at the time for an accurate reading.
Accordng to Bob, with the ignition off nothing should be pulling any power from the battery so we both believe that the computer is the thief causing my battery draindown issues and i'll be instaling that second one in a little while.
