[cknuth]

Time for an update.
First, let me pay homage to the local O'Reilly's for replacing the expensive 8Ds under warranty.  Great advice from Tom to use O'Reilly's.  I won't be installing them until all this is sorted out.  I have a cheap WalMart 12V standing in during analysis.

With the chassis cutoff switch turned on and all chassis loads turned off, there's about a 2.5A current.    At the front chassis panel, I found that although there are 10 fused circuits that are always on (vs. controlled by the ignition switch,) the only one that was pulling current was the automotive radio.  That radio has never worked right, so I just pulled the fuse.  Now zero current from the start battery.
To drain a fully-charged pair of 8D batteries (@1425CCA,) it would take 152 hours or over 6 days at 2.5A.  I think that's the general time scale of what happened.

I'm just starting to look at the Amp-L-Start.    My lithium bank is maintained by the inverter at 14.2V.    In "Quiet Mode," the voltage drops to 13.6.  It appears that the Amp-L-Start is only working at the lower voltage - needs to be confirmed.    This is the newer model with a jumper for lithium house batteries - need to check that too.

Question:
- what's the thing pictured here?    If it's a diode (which might make sense,) it's bad.    If it's a fuse, it's good.

Cheers,