> if volts do not go up now, then i would turn everything off, remove ground
> wire from battery and hook up your digital multimeter in series
> (one end of
> multimeter to neg battery terminal one end of meter to car ground
> spot. you
> should have no current, except maybe for a digital clock memory
> in stereo ?
> in any event it should be in possibly microamps. turn some stuff
> on and see
> the current jump (most meters have a 10A input jack). one item
> on and off at
> a time. things like headlights will suck a lot of amps. if you turn
> something like the radio or heater on and it sucks big time amps
> or you see a
> lot of current with nothing on, its just a matter of finding and
> fixing that
> one item.
I would advise caution when doing this, most DVMs with 10a inputs have
internal fuses that are fairly expensive to replace. An overload without an
internal fuse is even more expensive! Before risking a meter, I usually use
a test lamp first, I keep some partially burnt-out headlight bulbs for just
this sort of thing. If there's enough juice to light the bulb, don't use
the meter !
Also, I have a particularly bad habit of leaving the leads in the current
inputs, then trying to measure voltage, which usually also pops the fuse.
Besides, anything that draws too much current usually results in letting out
the patented Lucas smoke long before you get around to checking it.
Randall
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