My bike will run its battery dead pretty fast if I don't ride it. So something is drawing electrical current. I know my LED accents (remote receiver) and alarm draw current. But I don't see either killing a battery that quickly. The alarm has its own battery and kicks over to trickle charge when full. And the accents' receive can't be sucking down juice like this.

I suspect a short to ground and want to isolate it. I figure if there is a way to measure draw on the battery and then start disconnecting harness parts, I'll find it. I've got a pretty good multimeter and patience. Any suggestions?

 

If your multi-meter has an ampere setting then you can dissconnect the ground and place the meter in the circuit. So to clarify, one lead on the battery, one lead on the negative cable. All the current has to go through the meter unless it is equiped with a shunt so be careful not to exceed the meters rating(usually 10 amps).
Once the meter is in the circuit you can pull fuses to isolate which circuit is drawing.

 

Meter does more than I know how to do. Work equipped. It'll do that.

I won't be cranking the bike so there's no way I can pop the meter. Thanks!

 

Test the battery first. See if you have a bad cell in the battery. If that tests out good, go onto looking for a short. It could also be due to the nights getting colder. I don't know how cold it's getting in your area, but this might be a cause. That is, if this wasn't happening until the lcold nights started happening.

 

Nah was happening before, just faster since the temp dropped.

The battery is brand brand new and I put it on the charger when I got it home from Pepboys. I'm just looking for a way to isolate where the short is coming from