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Date:         Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:49:03 -0700
Reply-To:     courtney hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         courtney hook <courtneyhook@SHAW.CA>
Subject:      Re: [WetWesties] Multimeter help UPDATE-77 Westy
Comments: To: David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
Comments: cc: wetwesties <wetwesties@yahoogroups.com>, type2 <type2@type2.com>
In-Reply-To:  <4ea54b79.f05c340a.5f6f.ffff8e31@mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Thanks for the info David, I will try this when I get home from work tonight. You are correct; my clumsy writing style made it seem like I had both cables off, but I did not. I merely removed the +ve cable for a moment to disconnect the other smaller +12v wires that ran to my battery charger and the diagnostic plug. Appreciate any further help you and all the others are providing. Regards, Courtney

----- Original Message ----- From: David Beierl <dbeierl@attglobal.net> Date: Monday, October 24, 2011 4:26 am Subject: Re: [WetWesties] Multimeter help UPDATE-77 Westy To: Courtney Hook <courtneyhook@shaw.ca> Cc: wetwesties <wetwesties@yahoogroups.com>, type2 <type2@type2.com>, vanagon list <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>

> At 03:52 PM 10/22/2011, Courtney Hook wrote: > >OK, so something is def. not good here. I wasn't getting > anywhere with the multimeter, so I tried the other method which > someone forwarded to me, I put a 12v light between the negative > cable and negative post with everything turned off. The light > came on. This is supposed to indicate a current draw. I then > proceeded to remove the fuses one by one to see which circuit > the light went out on. It didn't go out at all. I even removed > the backup, gas heater, and 2 other 30 amp fuses on my Westy. > Light still stayed on. I took off the positive cable and removed > the red + wire to the VW diagnostic plug at the back thinking it > might be grounding, along with the other .... The light > still stayed on. > > I'm assuming a typo here. Reading the last two sentences > as written, you have the battery pos connected to nothing, the > battery neg connected to chassis ground through a test light, > and the light is lit. That's not possible. Given > that assumption, you can use current tracking to find the leak. > > Hook the battery back up, leave the fuses removed. Add a > long wire to your multimeter + lead and connect it to battery > positive. Now set the meter to the 200 mv or lower scale > and start probing along your still-live wires (with a sewing > needle if necessary), following the millivolt drops which will > gradually increase along a particular wire until you get to the > fault. You will only find drops on wires where current is > flowing, so when you get to a branch point find the branch where > the readings continue to increase as you follow the wire out. > > You'll need good contact on the meter probes, may need to polish > them to avoid odd/misleading readings. > > If the "sneak current" is enough to light a test light bulb I > think a 200 mv scale will probably let you trace it; but a more > sensitive meter would make it much easier as you wouldn't have > to travel so far along a wire to get a noticeable drop. > > If the sneak current is 200 mA, then you'd get about a 2.5 mV > drop along a meter of 1.5 mm^2 wire (fat 16 ga), but would need > four meters of 6 mm^2 (fat 10 ga) wire to get the same > drop. This would be a lot easier to trace with a 20 mV > scale where you could read fractions of a millivolt. I > have a meter with a four-digit display that reads to .001 > mV. You probably don't, but the more sensitive meter you > can find, the easier the job will be. > > Yours, > David >


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