2000 Jeep Cherokee Parasitic Draw

My son's Jeep left him stranded in Crumbl Cookies parking lot on his 1 month anniversary date with his girlfriend.  I was able to get it to start the next morning and get it to the house.  The starter was spinning, but the bendix was not engaging the flex plate.  I pulled the starter and bench tested it on an old battery.  It seemed OK.  I tested the battery with a Harbor Freight battery tester and it failed.  The battery had a 11/23 sticker on it.  I couldn't find the receipt for the battery, so ended up buying a new one.  The Jeep will crank with the new battery, but I'm see an 8 amp draw with the key off.  I pulled every fuse in the box under the hood and in the cabin and the amperage remained constant.  The only change I saw was when I opened the passenger door, and the current went down to 5 amps.  I'm really scratching my head.  The jeep has a winch and light bars, but I disconnected all of the aftermarket stuff before testing.  Any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Collin

The alternator would be my next place to check, if you haven't already. I've seen an alternator pull that much current with the car off before. It was HOT. You can disconnect the positive cable from alt and see if the draw goes away.

Will report back concerning the alternator. Any guesses on opening a door and the current falling?

So, no change with the alternator disconnected.  The current plan is to chase down the circuit that the door switch is on and see what other devices are on that circuit. 

Do you have an amp clamp?

When measuring or pulling fuses fails, I've found the best way to track down a parasitic draw is to start at the battery. All current flow starts and ends at the battery.

To use a visual analogy, think of traveling upstream in a system of rivers and streams, with the ocean being the battery. Think of tracking parasitic draws like following an oil slick. It does not matter which stream or river the oil slick started in. It is going to end up at the ocean (battery). If you want to know where it begins, start at the ocean (battery) and follow it upstream.

Arm yourself with Power and Ground schematics and use your amp clamp to measure the draw at the battery (ocean) to start. Then, move the amp clamp further "upstream".  When you come to a splice/junction, use the amp clamp on the individual legs/tributaries of the splice/junction. The current will take only one path (usually ). Use the amp clamp to determine which path it is taking and move further upstream.  Sooner or later you will end up at the source of the draw.