The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Battery Drain, gauge cluster?

Hi everyone, I've been blessed with a 1951 Chevrolet 1/2 ton that was my grandpas. He had an 8 volt battery that I recently replaced to a 6volt as I want to keep everything original as possible. The battery cable is too small from what I gathered from lurking here, and I'll be changing that tomorrow.

A buddy helped me trace the battery drain to the gauge cluster, I definitely have some poor grounds that need to be looked at, but the question I have is what in the cluster will pull power when ignition is off, or is the ignition switch itself to blame? All original stuff by the looks of it. We did disconnect the gas level sending unit, but that wasn't it. We kind of hit the wall after that.

I'm planning on putting a disconnect on the new bat cable until I can find the time and money for a complete rewire.

Really glad to have a resource like this!

Regards,

Lee

I'm far from a expert but the power for the gauges should be from the ignition switch somehow so the gauges go off when the switch is off.

Yeah, that's my idea too. The door lock doesn't operate so I guess I have a good excuse to change both.

YOU GOT DOOR LOCKS??? I'm inpressed. I'm lucky if I have a key.

Lol! I was wrong about the door locks, I was just to dumb to properly operate them. Always helps when u read the manual... Jeeze I feel like a rube! I don't think it will be the last time 1950's technology will make a moron out of me though.