Subject: Re: Electrical drain test?
Author: Bruce Giller
Date: Mar 27, 2002, 6:51 AM
Post ID: 1709937039
Might want to check your VOM specification chart to see how many DC
amps it will be able to handle - most of the time they aren't up to
auto/bike values. My ancient Sears tuning box (rev counter, dwell, amp
meter) can handle up to 30 amps or so. You remove the positive lead
from the battery and hook on wire to the battery terminal and the other
to the positive lead. I'd really like to get a DC amp meter like the AC
meters where you just clamp the jaws around the wire to get a reading.
I did this one time to trace a 'leak' in my VW Bug because the battery
always seemed to be on the low side. And there was a leak and I kept
tracing it for about 45 minutes only to find that it was the interior
light that came one when the door was open. I shut the door and the
leak disappeared.
Bruce
'72 Eldo
Jim Beeler wrote:
|
| One of the easiest ways is with an Amp Meter which may or may not be a function of your Multimeter. Disconnect the negative terminal, set the meter to the highest amp scale, hook it up between the negative wire and negative terminal and see if there's anything registering. Gradually reduce the amp setting on the meter and see if anything shows up. If it's consistently 0 then it's the battery. If it's more than 0, something is draining the battery. Oh yea, hook up the positive lead on the meter to the ground wire and the negative lead to your negative battery terminal (I think I'm remembering this hookup correctly). |