The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1954 3100 Fuel Gauge Draining the Battery

Let me preface this by mentioning I have very little knowledge on the 6V system and I'm not much of an electrician. This has been a learning-as-you-go kinda project and this one has me stumped.
I've owned my 54 for quite a few months now and haven't had any trouble out of the battery. All of a sudden, the thing is running dead after sitting a week. I put a new battery in to make sure and it is still draining. I got to thinking about the work I've done on it and the only electrical thing I've changed was the fuel gauge. When I bought the truck, the fuel gauge was bad and sat on E all the time. I ordered a new one from Brothers and installed it. It was a few weeks later that I noticed the battery was dead. Any ideas as to what may be causing this or what I may have done wrong?

If it's the gas gauge that's got the parasitic load it's likely connected to the hot side of the ignition switch. Does it show the fuel level in the tank even with the key off? If so connect the wire to the switched side of the switch and it'll not have to power to it, reading empty, with the key off.

That's what I was thinking. I found it dead last night when I tried to move it out of the garage for another project. Didn't have time to investigate so figured I'd pop a question up here while at the office. Where does that circuit draw power? Is it under the hood? Is there a "switched" side to the terminal? Forgive my ignorance. Unfortunately this subject is probably my weakest of the entire truck.

You ignition switch's input comes from the battery and is hot all the time. The output (switched) side is only hot when the ignition switch is turned on. If you wired your gauge to the hot side of the switch it could be the parasitic load you're looking for. The easy way to tell, if the gauge and sending unit are working, is if your gas gauge shows the correct level of fuel in your tank "with the switch off". If it's wired correctly it will show empty, if it's wired to the hot side it'll show how much gas is in the tank. If it's showing above empty with the switch off move the wire to a switched terminal and that will remove the load.

ok. I was assuming the source came from somewhere else. I'll check to see if it's wired to the switch but I don't think it is. I believe there is a terminal mounted elsewhere. I hear what you're saying and get it. I just assumed it wasn't directly related to the switch. thanks for the help. I'll look into it.

brandon_s Here is how mine is Wired ... Look at the first three pics... Pink is for the Fuel Gauge and is connected to the Ignition Switch... The last two are out of the Assembly Manual ...

Thanks for the pics. I'll check mine when I get back to it and see. That has to be bypassed on mine. It's the only explanation. I guess I'll know soon!