Who needs a DMM?

[dbeardslee]

If you do, HF's got 'em on sale for $2.49. It's an indispensable item for diagnosing those pesky wiring problems. I'm sure it's not super duper NASA approved accurate, but I'm also sure it's plenty close enough for our purposes. And hey - it's two dollars and forty-nine cents! Get 'em while they're hot.



This member is not affiliated with Harbor Freight - even if it seems like it sometimes .

[natemoen]

Heck they even had them for free a month or so ago. I have like 5 of them in my garage in the packages. Break one toss it and grab a new one!

[dbeardslee]

Free's good. Free's in my price range. If you pay for it with change you found in the couch, does that count as free ?

[natemoen]

Free\'s good. Free\'s in my price range. If you pay for it with change you found in the couch, does that count as free ?

Sure! I look at it as though its money you didnt know that you had, so it really doesnt count when you spend it!

[fredintoon]

If you do, HF's got 'em on sale for $2.49. It's an indispensable item for diagnosing those pesky wiring problems. I'm sure it's not super duper NASA approved accurate, but I'm also sure it's plenty close enough for our purposes. And hey - it's two dollars and forty-nine cents! Get 'em while they're hot. - - -

Hi Doug,
you gotta watch those el-cheapo multimeters. Not the accuracy so much as the scale ranges. A bargain meter I bought one time had DC Voltage scales of 0 to 10 and 0 to 50. Try looking for the difference between 12.2V and 13.5V on a 0 to 50V scale that's +/- 5% of full scale reading. Or looking for the 2 Ohm difference between good and bad on it's only resistance scale of 0 to 1,000 Ohms.

[BigRed]

Hi Doug,
you gotta watch those el-cheapo multimeters. Not the accuracy so much as the scale ranges. A bargain meter I bought one time had DC Voltage scales of 0 to 10 and 0 to 50. Try looking for the difference between 12.2V and 13.5V on a 0 to 50V scale that's +/- 5% of full scale reading. Or looking for the 2 Ohm difference between good and bad on it's only resistance scale of 0 to 1,000 Ohms.

I had the same experience with an analog multimeter, except its ranges were 10V and 200V. Not much good. I think it was about $3 on sale at Canadian Tire, so I'm not going to loose too much sleep over it.

[dbeardslee]

Here's the ranges listed for this one:

DC-A: 0-200µ A-2000µ A-20mA-200mA
Resistance: 0-200-2000-20K-200K-2000K ohm
DC-V: 0-200mV-2000mV-20V-200V-1000V
AC-V: 0-200-750V

[Ken Talbot]

Let me know if you ever see a low-budget digital tachometer for sale. I think that would be a great tool when doing a "colur tune by ear" sequence when you're listening for that very slight sound change as the rpms change a few revs up or down.

[dbeardslee]

I saw this one on sale about six months ago for $20 IIRC. It's usually $30. It's the contact variety, but it seems like it would be easy enough to hold it up to the center of the timing plate. Course it's times like those when I think maybe I should have had kids - I understand they make really good work holders . I had the same thought you did about using one to set carbs, and the resolution on this one looks pretty good - accuracy down to 1 rpm. Probably a lot more accurate than trying to use the electronic variety that read rpms from the high tension wires. I'll let you know if I see it on sale again.