short
 

Is there any common place to look for a short on an Econoline? (for example, on the old Chevy PUs, the first place to check was the taillights) I have read that the headlight switches short out a lot. The alternator is charging fine. If you disconnect a battery cable, the battery will stay up for weeks. Connected, it will draw down over night. I have checked it out in total darkness and it's not a cargo light.

Hi Rusty !
A reminder, what you are looking for is any circuit that has power available to it with the key off. Among the list are ,lights, alternator,stop lights,any accessories you may have connected directly to the battery to name a few. In the past we used to remove the fuses one a a time. Now if you have a digital ohm voltmeter (DVOM) available you can measure the voltage drop across each fuse and that will disclose the current drain. Of course the alternator is not covered in that test. Another way is to place an ammeter in series with one of the battery cables and find what the reading is. If over 50 millivolts there is a good size current drain. To confirm if the alt is the problem just remove the hot lead from the alt and see if the reading goes down to near 50 or below. Wanna try it?

could not find my meter, so I went old school. Hooked a test light from the neg post on the battery to the battery cable. The light was bright. Unhooked the alt, same thing. Used the light on the fuse panel. Two hot fuses. Taillights and courtesy lights.(yes I pushed the door switch in). So I am no better off. They should be hot. Guess I could take the courtesy light fuse out. I never drive it at night anyway.

What all is hooked to those fuses?

Electrical has always been my weak point.

Missed one, the emergency flasher fuse is hot, as it should be.

No one knows what is hooked to those fuses?

Rusty, you might want to check out this site.
www.autofuseboxdiagram.com/2965 1985 ford econoline

Says "website cannot be found" Ok, had to copy and paste.