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When you post to the forum, your subject should be a summary of what your post is about which is battery drain. Your subject "1955 still on the old six volt system" has been revised to summarize what your post is about.
It's probably the clock. I had the same problem, so I put a disconnect switch on the battery, and I turn it off when I'm not driving the car. It works fine. After 2 weeks of being off, I still had 6.7 volts on the battery. The only problem is that I have to reset the clock when I turn it back on.
The only problem with that is that a lot of stuff isn't fused. For example, the clock. It's on a 20-amp circuit breaker attached to the lighting switch.
could be the voltage regulator points are sticking. I would relpace it first since its the easiest
Disconnect the negative terminal, take a test light and connect one side to the batteries negative terminal and the other to the negative cable. The light should come on. Go to the fuse block and pull the fuses till the light goes off. That will tell you which circuit is your drain.
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Especially if they are old. The sulfates on the plates can come loose and short out internally. Batteries have been known to catch on fire when this happens.
Hmmmmn, no, a clock, if working properly, would take a few weeks to drain the battery. Remember there was no assurance these cars would be run every day, or even every week when they were originally sold. There is something else going on like a light staying on, a bad voltage regulator, etc. Sometimes even just a bad battery that won't hold a charge. It happens.
Yes. Once a bad battery is ruled out, pull all the fuses in the individual leads. Verify the draw is gone. Then replace the fuses one at a time until the draw returns. When the draw returns, that is your problem circuit. On occasion, the draw does not go when all the fuses are out. In that case it becomes more complicated because you are looking for something like a bad ignitions switch, headlight switch, damaged wire between the source (usually the ignition switch) and the fuse holder, or voltage regulator. Something without a fuse. Although when I had a bad VR on a 12V car, the generator light was on (less than full intensity) with the engine off and the key out. I didn't need to pull any fuses or measure amperage to fix that power drain.
A battery cut off switch will be your friend. Just a twist and everything is off. No more removing cables. A dyeing battery will act that way also. Looks charged but any load and it will die.
