Most hand-held VOMs have a 0-10A scale, but that does requires you to open the circuit at a connection and series through the meter. Most have an replaceable internal fuse to protect the meter. But when troubleshooting, about the only time you'll need an ammeter is when checking motor circuits and you've already determined that you don't have a short or poor connection. Failing or overloaded motors will draw more amps but it'll generally be obvious by that time.
I don't think I have seen this covered in this thread, but what is everyone using for covering at the end terminations? Shrink tubing? Shrink tubing with sealer? End connections with shrink tubing and sealer? My truck which wired decades ago will be rewired. The current wiring in some locations has corrosion and I'd like to prevent this from happening again.
Thanks for the link Crazy Steve. Looks like a good solid crimp done correctly on the correct style connector gets a great mechanical connection. Appears this will alleviate the corrosion between the connector wire. I'll be looking into your recommended pliers and connectors. I know a lot use your style of wire strippers. I have both one of those plus one of the one handed style that grabs the wire and strips it. I like the one handed one in areas where you either can't hold the wire well or don't want to pull on the wire very hard. I'll be using shrink tubing to make things more clean appearance wise. Thanks again.
If you are worried about corrosion getting between your grounds and other contacts, you can always put a coating of varnish on. The varnish will not let oxygen to get in. No oxygen, no corrosion.
I use Permatex 'aviation gasket cement' for that. Unlike varnish, it stays flexible and won't chip off. That's all I'll use on my battery terminals. Messy to remove however....
Hi All, I have a Signal Stat 900, I only have 5 wires coming out of the unit. Can you tell me the correct wiring ofr this unit, and why this unit has a jumped wire. I do know that The black wire has constant power, the Green is left side, the red is right side. The top left Grey wire has power when the key is on. The grey wire with black doesnt go anywhere, it jumps from one side to the other. Thank you for your help.
Red should be the right front signal Green should be the left front signal Black should be the right rear stop/signal Grey should be the left rear stop/signal Yellow should be the flasher load Grey/black should be the feed from the brake light switch. Should be more than a loop. Blue would be for a pilot, if you are using a 3 prong flasher. Maybe unhook the wires from the switch and verify what the wires on the car side do, then verify the brake light switch works; then hook it up and verify the red and grey wires work out of the switch, then hook up the flasher and see if all four signal outputs work when the lever is moved. If that all works, hook it all up and you should be good to go.
Thanks Dick. Now for something a little tougher. Are these connectors made to come apart? Only one piece of plastic as far as I can tell. Do the individual wires just pull out? '56 Chev.
https://www.w8ji.com/negative_lead_to_battery.htm So I happened upon this website linked above. They're saying it's a very bad idea to ground to the negative battery post. Is this true? I've got my primary engine ground going from the starter mounting bolt to the negative battery post. but i've also ran an alternator cause ground to the negative post. Overkill, but I want zero wiring issues when i'm done. I also have a dedicated ground wire running from under the dash going to the negative battery post. Thought being it's a clean, secure negative. Is all this wrong? I'm getting ready to wrap up the wiring job, but if i've got to pull some wires out, i'd rather do it now that later.
I think I understand more now. When I was upgrading wiring in my 64 Riviera, I was looking at the "best practices" for each system, not the whole car. So if my ground from the engine to the battery comes loose, the negative starting amperage will try to use my dedicated smaller gauge wire ground from the alternator to the negative battery post, and burn up, right? I'm reading about ground loops in the linked article, it looks like i've made several of those....
A body builder wired the ground for his added electric equipment direct to the battery; while the OEM installed the battery cut-off switch in the negative cable; became interesting when someone tried to start the truck with the battery switch off. Expensive lesson for the body builder.
In a similar vein, Years ago I remember hearing of a car where the choke cable was glowing red hot. It was because the ground between the engine and body had failed and the motor was grounding through the choke cable.
was looking for info to figure out GM neutral safety switch on '63 Nova SS with 350, and remembered this - available through speedwaymotors.com and more
Slightly off topic............I'm building a deep throat bead roller and I have a DC motor for it. Looks like being able to make it forwar/reverse will be pretty easy. The control has a dial knob fro controlling the speed. I would like to have a foot pedal control........or an either/or set up. The knob is a rather small control with small wires. The foot pedal has larger wires (or so it appears without opening it up). Is there a problem with putting a toggle switch in place to let me select either foot control or knob control? Does the foot pedal create a problem capacity wise. Will something start smoking if I have the wrong foot pedal? I've already smoked my limit of electronic parts for the year and still have a lot of year left
You would have to match the value of, and the taper of the potentiometer on the panel in your foot pedal. You can measure the total value of the pot by measuring the resistance across the 2 outer terminals. Than you need to know whether it is a linear or logarithmic taper. With a linear pot the increase in resistance is proportional to the amount you turn the pot. Logarithmic tapers have less increase in resistance at one end of the travel increasing the rate of resistance the more you turn the pot; and this can be standard or reversed. Getting both of these parameters right is crucial to having the right feel with the control. If the system is designed to use logarithmic and you use linear, it will be hard to control the speed with your foot, a small movement on your foot will cause a large increase in speed of the motor.
To clarify on the taper of the potentiometer. If you turn the pot to the exact middle of the travel, and the resistance is the same between the center terminal (the wiper) and each of the two outer terminals than it is a linear pot. If the resistance is greater between the wiper and one of the two outer terminals than the other, than it is logarithmic. BTW, yes, you could use a switch to switch between the stock panel mounted control & a foot pedal. All you would need is a 3PDT ON/ON switch. It doesn't have to be rated for high current, but a good quality switch with good contacts will prevent problems. I could draw up a simple schematic if it would help. Carling switches are good switches, at least they used to be: https://www.grainger.com/category/e...91fb5d814e8716f922823dedcbbbfb0d&gclsrc=3p.ds
I would appreciate that very much! I ordered some toggle switches Sunday from Amazon that have 6 wire attaching terminals, figuring that would be good for switching from foot to knob. They are scheduled for Wed delivery. Also have a box of three terminal switches on hand. I will buy whatever I need if these aren't it. Here is what the back of the knob and the foot contol looks like. I tested the foot control somewhat. I plugged 110 volts to it and saw that the voltage did vary, but did not know what I was looking for. I also have some lighter duty foot controls somewhere. Couldn't find any yesterday, so will take another look. I will print your above reply and try to see what I can get by trying again.
Its hard to determine where the exact middle is because a slight movement causes change in the reading.........but it appears to me that I can find a point where the terminal readings are very close to the same when I put it at a certain location that I'll call "the middle". Anyway, I think its linear. I found another foot pedal that appears to be a simple "Off/On" set up. That might work OK as it would let me stop and adjust rather than trying to adjust on the fly....AND it would let me just "Stop" which is better than having to reach for a knob.
Trying to test an old amplifier I took out years ago. One speaker input for LF RF LR RR but where does the other speaker input wire (neg?) go? Can't remember. Source ground? A lot of Edgar Winter, Deep Purple and Van Halen have traveled through this baby..
Hi Level Input - under that LF RF LR RR Front Output - under that L+ L- R+ R- Rear Output - under that L+ L- R+ R- Source GND Power GND On Sens Power
Other end has Low Level input jacks. A switch for 2 or 4 channel, and a switch for Rear Output, Stereo of Bridged.
The Jalopy Journal
