In a message dated 97-09-29 19:05:33 EDT, tboicey@brit.ca writes:
> Tony Childs wrote:
> > You should use an ammeter to sense current flow, not an ohmmeter in your
> > troubleshooting quest for this gremlin (no AMC pun intended!). I'm sure
> > that's what you meant to say, anyway.
>
> Good observation, but I think nowadays almost
> all meters are multimeters so the application
> is correct.
>
> I can't think of any portable meter I've seen made
> in the post-bakelite era that isn't a multimeter.
>
This is true, but they also have function switches on them, to switch between
voltage, current, and resistance measurements. Hooking up an ohmeter this way
may or may not damage the meter, depending on the magnitude of the current
drain (ie, resistance to ground), but the reading will be meaningless on an
ohmeter scale. In the ohmeter position, the internal battery supplies the
current. If the leakage current is added (or subtracted, depending on the
polarity of the hookup) to the internal battery current, you can see how this
would throw off any ohms reading you might get. To determine the current
drain, use the ammeter scale.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://www.sky.net/~boballen/mg/Masters/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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