how much ‘parastic’ current with the ignition switch turned on? Drained battery 53 Super

[53BuickSuperConv]

Hi, have ‘53 Buick Super 56C, and “all my life” (50 years of it) it’s sat up at our farm, and dad had battery disconnects on all the batteries….  Preparing for the auction, (I kept that one!) was going to move the car, and had completely dead (new) battery for first time ever.  Got a new disconnect switch, and same thing happened.  BUT, I had been monkeying with the power windows, and had the ignition switch “ON”, and forgotten it there.    

 

So I think the disconnect not completely “disconnecting” all the time, and drained with the switch on.  But what is there to DRAIN on a ‘53?    I stuck my Fluke probes in series and get about 3.6Amps of draw as soon as I turn the switch ON.    The ONLY thing that should be on would be the ammeter, gas, temp and oil pressure gauges.   The instrument cluster backlight bulbs have been burned out forever, so that’s not even part of the draw.

 

Is it possible the dash cluster system really draws that much current?  Seems more likely something is nearly shorting out, but don’t know how I’d begin to find it.

 

One thing that bothers me is the Heater fan switch is simply rotational, and there is no “click” for OFF.  It simply turns freely from off to on, just a rheostat?   SHOULD there be a distinct “OFF”, possible that is where the current is going?  I go from the base 3.6A to about 5A when I turn the heater fan ‘on’ and it is at high speed…..

 

Thanks!

Barry

Edited 20 hours ago by 53BuickSuperConv (see edit history)

[JohnD1956]

Check if your ignition points are closed or open. The constant power to the points in the ignition ON position may have damaged them.

[EmTee]

Disconnect the coil wire (+) and re-measure the draw.

[Bloo]

The ignition is at least 2 amps and plenty enough to run the battery dead quickly if left on. It only draws current if the points are closed, so it's a crapshoot whether it was drawing current or not when you left it on.

 

Do you have a clock? If so, and if the car was allowed to run dead sitting, the points in your clock are probably welded together. You would see this draw with the key off though.

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Bloo (see edit history)