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Re: your mail

To: gerry@speedy.att.com
Subject: Re: your mail
From: Dick Nyquist <dickn@hpspdln.spd.hp.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 91 14:41:40 PST


| (The wiring harness is original, never been butchered - and
| this is the first electrical problem I have ever had)
| 
not buchered yet perhaps , but putting a big wire in instead of
a fuse is a real good way to reach "China syndrome"!!!


| 
| 
| My questions are :
| 
| If there is a short, would the wire not get hot ?



not unless the piece of wire is higher resistance then
the spot that is shorted (somewhere in the rest of the 
electric harness). And a "big" piece of wire(fat) is low resistance.

I have seen desparate people "crowbar a fuse" and then try 
to find the short by looking for the hot spot or sniffing
where the smoke is. The danger is that when it starts to
smoke it may burn up before you find the short. It can
go all at once and take a lot of stuff withit.


  
| If there is a short, how do I start trackit down, because
| the fuse blows, when none of the compnents on the curcuit
| are switched on ?
| 
| 
 disconnect each circuit that comes from that fuse as close as 
possable to the fuse. Then put in a new fuse and reconnect each
circuit one at a time til you find the one that blows the fuse.
If you have an ampmeter available temporarily put it in series
with the fuse. and you might find out where the problem is
(which circuit is drawing lots of amps) without waiting for 
the fuse to blow. 




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