Power draw?

[8YO_VTEC]

Hey all, I'm new to this site, just bought an '87 5.0

In the last couple of days I've been having a problem. Seems that its drawing battery power from somewhere. Now, the overhead light would stay on when the door was closed (happened spontaniously) so I took out the bulb and unscrewed the little piece that fits up there. Thought that might be the problem. Started it up, let it run to recharge the battery. Came to start it a couple hours later. Dead. Anybody have any ideas? Electrical stuff is not something I'm good at either so speak slowly please Thanks

 

[kdog_x]

There's a little button inside the door that causes the light to go off when you close it. The reason your light is staying on is either because it's broken or it popped out. Take the bolt off the front of the switch (if it's there). Then take off the kick panel to get at the switch from the back. If you can't figure it out on one side take a look at the switch on the other side. Hope that helps!

 

[jerry beach]

Pull the fuse box cover on the lower left of your dash. Look on the diagram on the cover to see which one is interior lights. Pull that fuse and see if the problem goes away.

You have a power wire shorted to ground somewhere. Depending on you level of skill, you may not be able to do much about it. Sniff around for a burning smell near components that you suspect. Look for burnt wires. Look in you sun visors and see if the vanity mirror bulbs are burning all the time. Does it have an alarm or an aftermarket stereo that could be causing this. One way to isolate the circuit that its in is to pull fuses one at a time (then put them

right back) and see where the drain goes away. You can install a test light between the + battery terminal and the + batt cable. watch the light for changes as you pull fuses. Electrical stuff can be intimidating, makes it easy to miss the simple stuff. Concentrate on the simple things to check first, saves time. Good luck.

Sorry, I have no idea what you know. Pull the neg battery cable when you are not driving the car. You may have to pull the + one too in order to prevent the drain. Always pull - first, then + and install in reverse order while wearing glasses and keeping your face away from the top of the battery.

 

[blk92stangg]

If it comes down to having to disconnect the wires for awhile, you can invest in quick disconnect cable terminals too.

 

[8YO_VTEC]

well im not bad at cars, its just i'm one of those people who has no clue until i do it. i do have an aftermarket stereo in it the previous owner installed. one of the changes i WAS going to make before this started was move the power cable from the battery to the power coil (a trick my old auto shop teacher showed me). but i think it really may be that fuse for the over head light. i haven't had much time to poke around in this car. i bought it knowing it needed work. aparently this electrical problem is somethign that happened to me since he never had a problem with starting it up everytime. but i'm gonna go through the car tommorow pullin fuses with a test light like jerry beach suggested.