Compensating for an electrical short?

[VIKING_MECHANIC]

My 97 has an electrical short I've yet to find, although I know it's in the lighting circuit(I suspect the DRL circuit, as it's never worked since I've had the truck).

It's at the point where it's taking a toll on the charging system. The alternator can only put out so much with a high demand(I've watched it drop to 12.5-13v) and other times it's in the 13.8 range. I also have to charge the battery every other weekend. If I let the truck sit for two days straight, it will kill the battery.

I've heard I can put a 140amp(105 currently) on and change to a AGM battery to help reduce the strain on the charging system.

What's you guy's 2 cents?

 

[GoToGuy]

Diagnose a parasitic drain. Have you removed your battery , charge to full, and had load tested? There are good vids on parasitic battery drain troubleshooting. A short would open a fuse, problem gone. But a micro volt/ amp drain is a slow death. There ways others have gotten around DRL problems, in other threads.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Grounds, resistance drop voltage, lower voltage but same amp loads cause heat , heat increases resistance, truck could be running in a circle around the drain doing this with the right recipe and throwing more amps will just likely make distorted insulation and blown fuses. You need to know exactly what is the draw.

Then pull its power source like a MAXIFUSE or a fuse if you can,m now does it operate right? Then it was that. Im thinking its a stack up of age resistance drains poor grounding from factory, maybe missing grounds