Electrical Short Draining Battery. Need Advice

[Adidas]

I have an electrical short somewhere that is draining my battery down. Someone here locally talked about checking standby amp draw. I have a digital multi meter but not sure how to check this. What method do you use to find this problem. Could someone walk me through the basic steps. Thanks William

[pbanders]

Assuming the draw is fairly low and less than the rating of your DMM (usually something less than 10 A), you would put the DMM into current measurement mode (usually requires that you plug the probe into the meter in a different jack, too), disconnect one of the battery terminals, and put the meter in series with the battery (e.g disconnect negative terminal of battery, connect negative terminal of DMM to ground strap, connect positive terminal of DMM to the negative terminal of the battery). Measure the draw, it should be well under 1 A, I'm guessing something less than 10 mA would be appropriate for an old car like a 914 without any standby current requirements. Start pulling fuses until the draw drops down to an acceptable level. The fuse you pull that does this will identify the area where the current path is. Use the circuit diagrams on the PP web page to localize it further.