Leaking electricity

hello all
I recently removed the earth strap to the engine to clean the surfaces and when I did there was a faint spark as the contact was broken. This must surely mean that there is a live circuit even though everything was switched off. I confirmed the above with a volt meter and sure enough there is voltage running through it. I pulled all the fuses one by one but this didn't isolate where the live circuit is. There can't be much power escaping because it doesn't flatten the battery even after a few days of not being used. The wiring is fairly good order and apart from a new work lamp and a cigar lighter type power socket nothing extra has been added by me. My suspicions are focused on the alternator because on a couple of occasions the ignition light has come on whilst driving, it goes off again after a few minutes. Does anyone with more auto electric experience than me have any idea where the fault might be. I should mention that there are no devices needing permanent power such as a clock or radio.

Kind regards. Col

You could be right about the alternator, its rectifier/regulator could be at fault.Disconnect alt and see if voltage are still there.

Thanks Tottot, I have a brand new alternator waiting to go on, I'm just waiting for the weather to pick up a bit. The existing alternator is the original 30amp one, the new one is 60 amps, I hope it won't rob me of any of the few horse powers I have left.

Regards Col

The new alternator will only draw more HP if there is something else you have added [eg extra lights] or for a short time after starting as the alt puts charge back in the batt a bit faster though I doubt it would be enough for you to notice.Cheers.