MoparMarv

I have got my charging issues solved and now have been fighting a dead battery or draining battery issue. The battery was 3 years old and had probably been somewhat abused due to the charging and issue. I could charge it up and it would start the truck but left with out the charger it would drop to 10.5 volts within a minute and barely start the truck. I put a new battery in just now and noticed the terminals spark a little with the truck off which seemed odd. I poked around with a meter and see I have 12 volts at the grid heaters with the truck off and ignition off which doesn’t seem right. Is this a common failure for these to either fail on or have an internal failure that causes a current draw? I’m going to poke around the wiring diagram in a little. I disconnected the grid heater for now to see if that helps.

cougar

Check the voltage at the grid heater solenoid top posts. There should be 12 volts on one side and nothing on the other. If you have voltage, it has shorted.

u2slow

Pull the leads for the grids off the battery terminal. Sounds like you'll figure out if that's culprit real quick.

FWIW, heating elements tend to burn open, but solenoid contacts can weld/stick.

The battery problems I've had have been dying/dead voltage regulators, and their wiring.