What's Draining the Battery?

I forgot to write a blog for what I did on Friday so I'm updating it a few days late whoops. But Friday I focused on more research in the morning to try and better understand how the temperature gauge in the truck works and what I can test to fix it. After that I packed up my car with my toolbox and headed to my Uncle's place to get something done.

When I go to work on my truck I load up two tool boxes,
my power tools,  and other fluids that I'll need 

I decided to first check all the sensors that connect to the temp gauge. Temp sensor replacement, this is the video I used to get the idea of where they were. Once of the sensors were loose but other than that everything looked like it had a solid connection so I moved on to the next troubleshooting. I looked inside and found a ground by the fuses; it was getting rusty so I took it off and cleaned it up with a wire brush. After that I turned the key to light up the dash and everything looked the same, the I decided to test out the turn signals and they worked! I accidentally fixed that issue which was great, I just gotta replace the blinker bulbs, which luckily I have some in my parts bin.

The Ground that I cleaned off
under the dash. On Toyotas
the ground wire is black and white

The Gauge Cluster on my Pickup

Next I figured I might as well take out the whole gauge cluster and see if its rusty or any screws have become loose over the past 30 years. I didn't get any pictures of this but luckily it was very simple since all the dash panels are held together with screws, not plastic clips like new cars are. Toyota Pickup Complete Dash Removal is the video I used to help me here. Once the dash was out I tightened all the screws and didn't see any severe rust so everything looked good, I put everything back in place and moved onto the last thing I wanted to do that day; take out that damn aftermarket radio.

Before removing the radio

After, with no radio installed

The radio itself is actually a pretty nice after market one, its got a disc player, aux, and a clock, but someone robbed the speakers out of this truck, and it also doesn't have a radio antenna, so its pointless at the moment. But the main reason why I removed it was because it was always on, even when the key was turned off and out. Removing it was very easy, it was only like 6 screws and it was OUT, and I might eventually put it back in but I'm not sure yet. I plan on re-doing this whole area of the dash since its been so heavily modified with the plow controls and after market radio, but that's for a different day down the road. 

Lastly, another thing I did a few days ago that I forgot to mention was put the new seat in! It's insane how much comfier it is than the one that came with it. Its got a lot more support and firmness but it does have some rips which I will be patching in the near future before they get any bigger. The seat isn't even bolted in though, its just sitting there so we can easily drive it in and out of the garage but it'll be properly installed once we remove the old rotten bolts and fix the rusty drivers side floor.