Ok first of all I have read all the posts on the What's killing my battery so don't  jump on me.  My situation is I went for a little drive and came back after dusk and lights on. I just once turned the light switch to put the T-top curtesy light on just to then turn it off making sure it was off prior to parking the car. I know the light was not on overnight. The next evening I came out to go for another drive and the battery was completly dead. The next morning I took it to Autozone to get it tested and see if it would re-charge. One of the cells was dead so the battery was shot. It was only one year old.  Ok so I got a new battery under warranty and the next day jumped in the car to go for another ride. Battery dead. I have not had time to go get it checked and get another battery. I thought back and a few days ago I used the cigar lighter to plug in a charger for just a few minutes. Could not be more then 10 minutes. I did not put the lighter itself back in there but thought that somehow it was on even though I did not have the lighter pushing against the bottom to activate it.  I put the meter on it and yes as tested power was there but could not tell it if was always on.  Another thought I have is the radio somehow pushed through the opening in the console so its under the area where there are a few bundles of wires.  But to me if it was the radio shorting out or the cigar lighter shorting out from use then would it not kill the fuse and not drain the battery down???  I will pull off  the carpet sides  and then disconnect the radio and the cigar lighter and then like you said attach one at a time and use a amp meter to test for a drain. I'm thinking it s the lighter that the 46 year old holder is touching and shorting as it is hot wired to the battery without the key turned on as I recall?? I think this is the drain.  It is just weird it came out of the blue and killed both batteries in one day. So just to make sure I am putting an amp meter between the negative past and the negative wire and then see if there is a jump in the needle as I pull a fuse?  So can't I just plug the power back into the radio and the lighter one at a time and then disconnect each  looking at the meter to see if it is drawing power on contact?

Thanks for your help in advamnce.

Babyblue 78.

I  am  not sure if this body can sit with my back on the floor and my head stuck up under the steering wheel to try and grab the fuse box. Hard to believe they built it that way. UGH

I'm thinking maybe you could start by pulling one fuse at a time to see if the problem goes away.  Start with pulling the fuse for the lighter.  If the batter still goes dead, pull it for the radio next, etc, until the battery keeps its charge.

-Adam Wartell
NCM Lifetime Member #1222
Founder: C3 Vette Registry 
C4 Vette Registry, C6 Vette Registry

My first Vette, now owned by JB79:

Thanks for the info. I think now after I exchanged the first dead cell battery the one I got under warranty was on the shelf too long and died itself. i got a new strong battery and I did the drain test and came up on nothing for the hood light,feet overhead dome light and the radio. not showing any drain on the drain test. i have had them all hooked up individually and together and no real bad drain  over a period of time. Yes in the northeast winter and over time of not starting or running it I expect a drain from the clock.  What I am looking at now. When I was re-wiring and taping anc capping the wires at times I heard come clicking. I'm thnking a nor resiter but the little aluminum  (sorry can't come up with the term right now) but ok RELAYS that I heard some clicking when I attached the radio the powre wires. I'm thinking there could be a lose wire in the tape wrapped harness coming down from behind the dash and also the yellow wires which seem to be coming maybe from a relay back by the battery but I would not know where, no room for it but wires are cominig up from the back going to the fuse link before the radio harnes is attached. I have one diagram but not the best so if someone could shed some light on where the real power wires are coming from or the wrapped harness that come down from behind the dash is where I see a blue wire coming out of the harness and then attaching with the red/black power wires and go to the fuse link and then to the radio. Also what are the yellow or orange wires heading towards the back of the car?  When i attached the radio and left it attached without the key on to see if it started a draw  it did not over a period of time. I then turn the key to aux and after a minute or 2 it had a pwoer interuption and turned off and on by itself. This si what now I am trying to track down.  Any pics or identifying where the power should be coming from which harness and color wores would be appreciated. Remember this care was pulled from the swamps in Florida and sold by the Alligator salesman so who knows what the previous owners did with it.  You think I'm kidding about the swamps of Florida?

Cheers,

Mark

Paragraphs!  Sheesh.

The battery you think sat on a shelf should have had a sticker on it with the month and year of manufacturer.

Yikes! To be honestly perfect with you, Pull ALL the wires out. Call Lectric Limited and order the entire harness. Install it and Know all the connections are done correctly. I did it, and have no regrets or problems. Nuff Said! 

Click on image for full view

1978 Corvette Wiring Diagrams

You will need to right click "save to", or right click "open in new window" to enlarge the diagrams. 😉

If you have a pc/laptop, I would suggest saving them to a file on your puter, for future reference. 

Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56    
My Link


(click for Texas-sized view!)             NCRS

"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

Sorry for the delay. Thanks for the diagrams. Having trouble seeing any draw when hooking up the ampmeter in line with the battery. I know the clock draws some power to keep time and on the fm/cd player the clock has a line of power also. I can see both of them drawing down the power over time but not what happened a few weeks ago. I hope to get back to it soon before it really gets cold her in the NE. Thanks again for the charts and all info from all.

Babyblue 78

We had a  Blazer that had an XM receiver that hooked to the aux input on the radio.  This receiver couldn't draw hardly any power, but if it was not turned off, it would kill the battery overnight.  I could never understand how such a light draw could kill a new battery like that.