After replacing the starter on my 63 Valiant, I was hooking the ground cable back up to the battery and was surprised when a small spark occurred when I touched the cable to the battery. Nothing spectacular, but small spark nonetheless. Since I had a little time on my hands, I pulled each fuse one at a time, and touched the cable to the battery in an effort to isolate the parasitic drain. The spark continued through all this. The previous owner recently installed a radio in the car and I am wondering if maybe he bypassed the fuse panel link?? All the functions such as headlights, brake lights, interior lights, etc. work fine. For the time being I am removing the ground cable when the car is just sitting in the garage, but I would like to figure out what the heck is going on. Suggestions would be appreciated.

get a free voltmeter from harbor freight (coupon shows up all over the place).

Use the 10 amp setting and do your checking....

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

You might be right. It could be the clock and memory in the new radio that's drawing a small bit of power.
Might it be possible that the dome light was also "on" when you hooked the battery back up?

Roger

All the above posts are spot on on my opinion,probably just the radio memory or clock drawing a small amount,I did have another vehicle that had a mysterious battery drain,but it was much higher and tended to drain the battery over a few days,turned out to be a faulty diode in the alternator,so if you can't find it disconnect the alternator and see if that helps....unlikely yes....but it can happen