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Wed May 12, 2010 9:35 pm

I need to test some wires going from the dash to the engine compartment, what is the best way of doing this? A really long jump wire?

Wed May 12, 2010 9:47 pm

I have a roll of 100' 24guage wire with aligator clips on both end to check long distance continuity. Works good on vanagons as well as on house projects

Wed May 12, 2010 10:54 pm

Buy a " power probe " ,it comes with leads long enough to go around a Semi .
It has a lot of great features like being able to check components and let you know if a circuit is Power ,ground or dead .
They may seam expensive at over $100.00 ,but will be the most used arrow in your quiver .

Stacy

Thu May 13, 2010 7:10 am

This is easy to do without the need for extra jumpers if you can isolate both ends of the wire you want to test. You can either do it by voltmeter or testlight, or ohmmeter:

Just clip your testlight or voltmeter to a power source on one end (alternator positive pole is always hot in the engine bay), the other lead to the wire you want to test. If the wire is isolated from ground, you would see no voltage or the testlight will not light up. Then go to the other end of the wire and ground it, your testlight will glow, or your voltmeter show voltage.

Or use the ohmmeter, connect the leads between any grounded point and one end of the wire you want to test, there should be infinite ohms, then ground the opposite end and you will see a circuit. This method is easiest because you don't need to find a positive power point. Best of all is if your VOM has a continuity buzzer you can put it in ring mode and test this way without the need to see the meter.