Dome Lamp fuse draining battery, possibly trunk light?

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evans68cuda

evans68cuda

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Hey everyone, my battery died over the weekend on my 68 barracuda fastback a few weeks ago so I tried pulling fuses to see whats goin on. With all of the fuses in, I am getting a 1.3 amp draw, and once I started pulling fuses out, I found it was the dome lamp. With the dome lamp fuse out I get .02 amp and Ive heard that these cars should be good with anything less than .1 amps. Now, I currently do not have a trunk light so that is why I am thinking it could possibly be the culprit. I disconnected the wire from the cigarette lighter and still pulling 1.3 amps. both of the lights next the the rear windows turn on when the doors are open and turn off when they are closed, along with a courtesy light under the passenger side of the dash. Not sure if there is supposed to be a light under the driver side dash, but currently there is not one, along with no trunk light. I was looking at the 68 Plymouth diagrams and it shows a trunk light switch and light breaking off from the 2 dome lamps, but I do not see any loose wires in my car. Any ideas?
 
Put a test light between the negative battery cable end and the negative battery post. The light should illuminate. Start removing bulbs until the light goes out. There's your culprit.
 
IF it's a lamp you should SEE it with that much draw. See if I can figure out what all is on that circuit..........

Looks like dome and lighter "is it." Is it possible someone has added something? How about the radio? (Someone may have tapped power off that circuit)

How about a lamp (console, etc) that has fallen down and out of the socket and you cannot SEE it?
 
Oh right I forgot to mention, I do not have a glove box light either, but according to the diagram, looks like there is a map light and the glove box light that connect to the cigar lighter. Ill have to look tomorrow Here is the diagram I am referring to file:///C:/Users/kids/Downloads/68%20Barracuda%20Factory%20Wiring%20REV%202.pdf
 
RustyRatRod said:
Put a test light between the negative battery cable end and the negative battery post. The light should illuminate. Start removing bulbs until the light goes out. There's your culprit.
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take the lead off and bridge it with the test lamp? Interesting......
 
68cuder said:
But what if I don't have a socket for the trunk and glovebox lights?
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Then remove fuses one at a time until the test light goes out. There's your problem circuit.
 
That's how I found the dome light fuse was draining the battery. Now I gotta find which light is actually draining it.
 
68cuder said:
That's how I found the dome light fuse was draining the battery. Now I gotta find which light is actually draining it.
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Then take each light out like I suggested.
 
pishta said:
take the lead off and bridge it with the test lamp? Interesting......
Click to expand...


I've used this for years. One of my favorite tools is a stop/ tail socket and 1157. You can wire it up several ways depending on what you are doing with it.

Both pigtails together and the socket shell is highest wattage

Or use stop alone, some less W
Or use only the tail filament, even less W
Or let the socket "float" and use each pigtail for the two terminals, that puts the filaments in series for lower wattage
 
67Dart273 said:
I've used this for years. One of my favorite tools is a stop/ tail socket and 1157. You can wire it up several ways depending on what you are doing with it.

Both pigtails together and the socket shell is highest wattage

Or use stop alone, some less W
Or use only the tail filament, even less W
Or let the socket "float" and use each pigtail for the two terminals, that puts the filaments in series for lower wattage
Click to expand...

I have also used a 12V buzzer you could get at Radio Shack for when you could not see the test light......but so much for Radio Shack. lol
 
Ok ill pull the bulbs first and check for corrosion, but what if that doesn't solve anything? could it be either the trunk or gloe box lights? I cannot find a wire for the trunk light and just checked for where the wires come off the cigar lighter and it looks like the socket is completely removed.

IMG_9188.JPG
 
68cuder said:
Ok ill pull the bulbs first and check for corrosion, but what if that doesn't solve anything? could it be either the trunk or gloe box lights? I cannot find a wire for the trunk light and just checked for where the wires come off the cigar lighter and it looks like the socket is completely removed.
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Look man, stop "what iffin" already. Be positive. Don't worry about "what if" until you get there. You're clobberin things up.
 
lol your right. Ill start by keeping it simple with pulling bulbs and checking corrosion. Ill keep you all updated tomorrow. But I would like to add a glove box light, anyone have any pics of how and where exactly their's is mounted?
 
68cuder said:
lol your right. Ill start by keeping it simple with pulling bulbs and checking corrosion. Ill keep you all updated tomorrow. But I would like to add a glove box light, anyone have any pics of how and where exactly their's is mounted?
Click to expand...

I did on my 75 F250. The plug in the harness was already there. I added kick panel lights, ashtray light and glovebox light. I hawked Ebay until I found some good used OEM pieces, sockets, harness, plugs and all. It turned out nice.
 
Some guys like power antennas as a add-on. When they go bad,draw power. Just throwing this in. Check wiring for dome, could be shorting under carpet or in kick panel.
 
Not every build got all the additional lighting. Then many of them had a delay timer that would hold some lights on for a brief period ( ignition switch lamp for example ). That timer is often found to be the battery killer too. Good hunting
 
RedFish said:
Not every build got all the additional lighting. Then many of them had a delay timer that would hold some lights on for a brief period ( ignition switch lamp for example ). That timer is often found to be the battery killer too. Good hunting
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Thanks red, I intended to mention that
 
Cool thanks on confirming the map light, I do not have a power antenna so no need to check for that but thanks for the heads up, and do all cars have that delay timer? I saw that on the diagram but not in the car.
 
I had same issue. The passenger side dome light socket was grounding to the panel when I would put the lens cover back on. It could be either driver or passenger side lamp holder. I just put electrical tape on the solder joints.
 
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