Power Probe, tester or power?

[Stick]

Agreed (as far as nearly worthless ohm test)

As far as checking grounds with a meter, pretty simple.
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I was thinking more along the lines of a broken ground wire, high resistance wire, etc. I'm well aware of how to check a ground using a meter, but for 90%+ of the wiring problems that I see, it's pretty easy to supply a known good ground with the power probe and see if the component works.

The starter solenoid on our Peterbuilt that I talked about is a good example. A quick check showed that I had power to the solenoid when cranking, and the meter showed almost full battery voltage so we know that the positive side of the circuit was good. I hooked up the pigtail to the negative side of the solenoid (which supplies a known good ground), hit the positive side with B+ from the rocker switch, and the truck cranked over just fine. At that point, it's pretty clear that it was a ground issue, but the truck was running and I was able to drive it into the shop to check things out further, where I found a badly corroded ground wire. Much faster then trying to find the other end of the wire to do a voltage drop on the ground side of things, especially working outside in the snow.

 

[diesel research]

Much faster then trying to find the other end of the wire to do a voltage drop on the ground side of things, especially working outside in the snow.

You have to access one end of wire even if using PPIII to inject ground into solenoid....the other end in case of a ground side concern, is the battery or known chassis ground. Both of which had to be accessed to hook up the PPIII.

Of course, there is a certain satisfaction to using any type of jumper wire system to see the device actually fire up, as opposed to merely seeing a display as one would with regular DVOM.

The PPIII isn't anything ground breaking considering individual features, but the combination overall makes for a handy device. Long leads, protected jumper wire, audio function, basic volt meter (with hold function), continuity, test light, flash light in one semi compact unit.

 

[Toolhorder]

When these guys come on here and say stuff like they don't see the need or whatever for a power probe it's like a caveman who says they can make a fire by smacking rocks together when you have a lighter in your hand.

I don't get why so many techs have a closed down mind. I'll admit I didn't think the PP1 was good but after using a co-workers and getting used to it I've had every version. I probably told this story before but once I was working for Acura and I had a particular wiper motor problem I couldn't really pinpoint. This system was on a 01 TL I think it was and the circuit was multiplexed I believe. I think it was a no intermittent problem on wiper speed. Anyway I called up techline hoping they had a similar problem and knew what to look for and I was using the PP2. Honda/Acura techline people only use DVOM's (usually Fluke 88) so the guy on the phone kept asking about the voltages and I kept telling him I have power or ground on the circuit. He finally was like what is the voltage and I told him I didn't know I was using a PP and he got kinda mad. I pulled out the DVOM and we went back to work (sure I could have had a power circuit that dropped voltage but probably not at least on a Honda)
The problem wasn't with the power circuit dropping voltage and it usually never is on Honda/Acura but being Japanese they leave no detail out of any problem so me being the hot shot I am called up PP because they had a 800 number on the back of their packaging that said something about ideas? or something to that affect.
I talked to the guy on the phone about adding a small LED for voltage and they didn't seem interested.
Fast forward a couple years and the tool truck guys shows me the PP3. WTF? Last time I call anyone with a tool idea.
I doubt I was the ONLY tech to think up something like this but still.

 

[MrMark]

Agreed (as far as nearly worthless ohm test)

As far as checking grounds with a meter, pretty simple.

Let's say I want to check my main cable ground. One lead on neg post, one on engine block, several electrical loads switched on. Just that quick the main cable is tested. Maybe just a headlight wire. Same principle, one lead on negative, other lead at end of ground wire you are testing. Nothing disconnected, and device switched on. Import sensor grounds? One lead at main ground junction at rear of engine, other back probed into sensor ground for sensor being tested. Done. Same could be done on positive side as well. One lead at each end of a wire being tested while device is turned on) Or across a switch or relay contact. Reading over .300/300mV? Time to replace/repair.


(still think the PPIII is a good choice for plenty of tests)

good post. this is called voltage drop testing and it is a powerful tool with a multimeter. short circuit voltage is 0 volts. A ground the way you are testing is a short circuit. Basically you are determining the resistance of the connection by voltage drop testing.