I have a parasitic drain in my 1984 22r carbureted 4 runner. I have checked for it with a meter placed between the ground post of the battery and the ground cable. I had 10.95 amps and started pulling fuses. The only change I got from pulling the fuses at the kick panel was when I pulled the dome light fuse. The meter dropped to 10.87. When I pulled the hazarded light fuse in the engine bay the meter drop to 0.14. Should this fuse have this much power going through it so it will work if the truck is not running or is this the problem my battery is drained down over night. What should the amp meter read when everything is grounded properly? I am tired of have to jump off my truck ever time I let it rest for a few days and I do not know anything about electric problems. I have not extra lights or anything on the truck; it even has the original radio. All the lights and everything else works like it did the day I got the truck in 1986. Any help would be very appreciated.

Not sure how much, if any, amp draw there should be, but 10 something is DEFINETLY too much. Sounds like you found your problem.

Toyota specs parasitic draw should not be higher than 50 milli amps on it's later vehicles that have more parasitic draw due to key fob receivers and security computers that stay powered up all the time... I've measured it on my 2000 4Runner and it runs around 40milli amps..

The parasitic draw on your vehicle (without those features) should be even less.

As you already know 10amps will pull a battery down very quickly.

Sounds like the hazard flasher might have a problem.. although it's hard to imagine it drawing 10 amps without smoking it.

Since it's related the flasher circuit I'd try removing the bulbs, (thinking that one of the bulb sockets may be shorted to ground) and checking the wire runs to the bulbs. With the long runs of small gauge wire to the sockets, it may just be heating the wire instead of smoking it...

Thanks for the reply. I did unplug the blinkers in the front and the draw did not change. I have to pull the 10A
HAZ-HORN fuse for the draw to drop. It only goes down to 1.80 amps. The hazard switch on the steering column makes draw go up 1.3 amps. I guess I have lots of problems with 1.80 amps being used with all of my fuses removed. I would like to start with the largest problem first. When I test the light sockets
should I get the same amps as the amps of the light bulbs? I really have no idea about electric stuff but I am going to learn it later today. Any ideas on exactly how to test for amp pulls and the "general" draw of things like the light bulbs, radio, etc would be very helpful. Thanks

Sounds like you got a pretty difficult to diagnose problem.. With regard to the light bulbs, I was more concerned about one of the wires to the lights or at the bulb socket itself being shorted to ground... so I would expect it to draw more than the rated amps of the bulb..

Maybe I'm getting confused by by your last post, but it sounds like you have multiple circuits or places drawing above average idle current..

Any history on this vehicle? i.e. flooding, running mud off road or past collision damage?

Dandeman, thanks for the reply. I have had this 4runner since 1986. It has 326,000+ miles. I used it as a daily driver and hunting truck until 2002. I use it for hunting now and it gets a lot of time in the woods. It is in the mud and goes through some creeks from time to time but I do not that it out just to go mudding. It has never been in a flood but I have had water get inside when I go through some creeks to get to my hunting spots. I have had one bad crash and it was up in the front. It is bone stock except for 3ö taller springs and shocks. I run 31/10.50 BFGs on it. I have never had a problem with the battery getting drawn down until I had to replace the starter about a month ago. I knew I should have just put some new brushes it the original starter but I went ahead and bought a rebuilt starter from the local parts store. I do not know how to test the starter but it seems to work properly. I had my son pull the fuses one at a time while I had the amp meter hooked up in between the negative battery cable and the negative post of the battery. The key was off and the doors were closed. Nothing was on when my son started to pull the fuses. I had a reading of 10.95amps before the first fuse was pulled. The only fuse inside the truck that dropped the amps was the dome fuse. When my son pulled it the meter dropped to 10.87. Next, I started pulling the fuses under the hood and when I pulled the (10amp) HAZ/HORN fuse the meter dropped to 0.14. This made me think that my problem is some where in this system. I have gone over the wires but have not found a broken or bare wire. I unplugged the front blinkers and put the fuse back in place. The amp meter went back up to 10.87amps. I never did unplug the back blinkers so I will do that tomorrow. Maybe it has something going on in the tail lights If that does not help I think my next step is to remove the fuse block and see if something is going on under it. I am just learning about finding electrical problems so I really do not know how to use the amp meter to its fullest potential and that is making it hard to do some real trouble shooting. If you could give me some advise on checking the starter it might be a big help. Common sense tells me it is a bad starter because I never had this problem until I changed it, but it is working well and the battery did not go dead for 3 weeks after I replaced the starter. The amp meter says it is something to do with the hazard lights or the horn and I have not been able to find a bad wire. I love this old truck and need to get it back to being reliable. It had been such a great truck that I bought a 2000 4runner in 2002. I bought a 2002 4runner for my son back in September. My wife drives a 2005 4runner. They are all 4 wheel drive and I have never had a problem out of any of my Toyotas until this happened to the 84. My girl wanted a car so I bought her a 2005 Camry SE and it seems like it is going to be a good car. I would appreciate any suggestions you have that might help me find this problem. Thanks

OK. the haz/horn fuse is hot all the time, it gets it power through a fusable link. The wire from the fuse (green/orange) splits into two (green/orange and green/white). Green/white feeds the horn directly (+) and the horn is switched by ground at the steering wheel. The green/orange wire goes to the Hazard switch. When the switch is open (off) then your turn signals get power from an ignition source. Try these two things and see what you get on your anmeter. Disconnect the horn completely, check your results. If that doesn't do anything reconnect them and try this. Open the shroud around your steering wheel, find the hazard switch and disconnect the Green/orange wire, then check your anmeter. BE CAREFUL these wires are hot (horn and hazard) so disconnect the (-) battery before disconnecting and reconnecting any wires, and dont touch them at any time to metal.

Also check this wiring and make sure it has not been tapped for power (maybe for a stereo, CB, accessories (like a make-up mirror <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/nana.gif" alt="" />) ), some people tap this circuit cause its hot all the time.

The hazards are not part of your light circuit unless the hazard switch is on, the switch is bad, or crossed wires.

Let us know your findings

Dude, I feel your frustration. Not long ago, my 93 Runner had a parasitic drain. It took me an eternity to find it. Of course I'm an idiot when it comes to electrons! But I started disconnecting things, one per day, and would check the volts the battery had left the next morning and wrote down everything. Finally, I disconnected the alternator over night and low and behold, the battery was still fully charged! Even though the alternator was running perfectly, it had a bad diode or something. I replaced the alternator, and problem solved. I bet even though your starter works fine, it probably has a bad something in it. Disconnect it over night and check the volts the next morning.