Well, I had dinner with my father tonight. Chicken pie, home fries, green beans, corn. Pretty good dinner. When I got home I took the ground cable off the vans battery and I heard a slight click from the firewall. I put it back on and there it was again. I did it several more times trying to locate it but some moron up the road is shooting off fireworks and driving the neighborhood dogs nuts. So I can't get an exact location on the noise. It's coming from the general area where the windshield motor, voltage regulator and a few other things are located. I do know it's not the alternators diodes causing a drain. I drove it for several miles then checked the temp of the alternator casing. It was only slightly warmer than the mounting bracket which was cool to the touch. I double checked it with a probe to be sure since I can only feel a little heat. I can pick up a hot pot and have blisters on my hands and hardly feel a thing. Maybe tomorrow I can locate where the noise is coming from. Could be the voltage regulator locked in the on position? Or maybe the auto return on the wiper motor is acting up?
. So I got the itty-bitty shell off without breaking anything.....yay! Then I soaked up a bunch of excess oil and grease that got on the pickup contacts and decoder/frame contacts. Now she works every time! I've had pretty good luck repairing a few these micro locomotives in this, my first year getting to know the little buggers. I refuse to be intimidated any longer by little baby trains. 
