Sometimes it's a pain in the butt to use a continuity (ohmmeter) while trouble shooting wiring because you have to hold your test probes on the affective wiring and also look at the meter in difficult positions. I found that if you wire up a household door buzzer with a battery and some wire leads of appropriate length you can test the wiring audibly by listening for the buzz instead of having to look at the meter. As in all cases of checking continuity, make sure the circuit is dead. Many people have blown the ohmmeter circuits of their multimeter by forgetting to kill power source. Pull fuses or disconnect + POS lead from battery.

You can locate grounded wiring by connecting one lead of the buzzer to ground (frame) and the other lead to the suspected circuit's fuse connection by removing the fuse and connecting the test lead to the load side of the fuse connector. If buzzer is buzzing, start to remove suspected devices such as light bulbs, connectors etc. or start pulling and gently yanking on wiring harnesses until buzzer stops buzzing.You have now located potential source of problem and can then do further investigation of wiring and or sockets or connectors.

Hope this helps some of you.

 

Good tip but most multimeters have a built in buzzer for that

 

I was gonna say this as well. Whole lotta effort this guy just did to reinvent the wheel...lol

 

No great revelation stating that most multimeters have a built in buzzer. I am very much aware of that since I own two Fluke 77's, One Fluke 79, one Fluke 8060 and I'll show my age, two Simpson 360's. I also own many different clamp on test meters and signal tracers.

Sometimes it is quite difficult to hear the little piezo buzzer when working in a noisy environment. I for one who has repaired radios and associated equipment on tanks and armored personal carriers in Fort Knox years ago and having worked on Electrical Substation controls, alarms and relay protection circuits in a very noisy environment for over 34 years have lost a lot of my hearing especially high frequency sounds. A buzzer is much easier to hear.

I was merely trying to give a little tip or hint to some of the riders who do not have a decent multimeter.I definitely wasn't trying to "reinvent the wheel" There are so many other experts who can do that. A battery and a buzzer is a good cheap alternative .

I have read many threads where questions were asked on how to diagnose and repair wiring problems, especially in simple lighting circuits. Instead of posturing and telling them to get a manual or to tell them to check their fuses when they have already stated the fuses were blown, I was simply giving cheap, honest well intentioned advice on how to do simple testing. They come here for help.

I thought this forum was set up so riders with expertise and experience could help and aid fellow riders with less experience.

Try working in an outdoor relay panel with 3,000 or more unmarked grey wires and try to find the bad one with just a fluke and it's sissy buzzer. Good luck.

Most circuits on a motorcycle or automobile are very simple and consist of nothing more than a battery, a light bulb of some sort, an actuating device such as a switch and the wires that connect them. Most problems can be diagnosed and addressed using this simple concept and a battery buzzer is perfect for that.

Perhaps with a little more guidance and instruction, a lot of our fellow riders will be able to repair their bikes more easily. Wouldn't it have been better to add some of your own insight and knowledge to the thread rather than a mocking comment?

 

Ummmm........I hope your dissertation wasnt directed at me cause I started my reply with......"Good tip". However, Ive gone since 1982 without a special built audible continuity tester. The vast majority of that time as an avionics mechanic on jet aircraft....Im sure a little noisier than the work environment you were in. Buzzers are good for quick checks to tell you what wire is what but tell you nothing other than theres continuity. No matter how noisy it is you can read your meter. And if handling 2 wires is such a pain, use your efforts to make an assortment of clips.

This is what I use if I really want to know

 

Very Good tip. Some of my cheap meters do not have a buzzer but a cheap and loud 12 volt buzzer from Radio shack would be something good to have in my garage.

 

anyone having trouble with radio

 

Heeldragger - thanks for the tip. I'm certain some on the forum will find the technique helpful. I learned that trick a few years ago watching a mechanic friend of mine trouble shoot why a car battery in a car was being drained. Turned out to be the electric seat adjustment. He simply pulled the fuse after having the owner put the seat in the right spot for themselves. He didn't charge them, of course. The owners didn't have a lot of money and were simply happy that the car would now start. The car was a real beater, but it was all that the family had.....if they has brought the car to a dealer, they would have paid big $ for a simple fix (or kluge.....).

 

having proper leads helps a lot!

I use alligator clips, bed of nails, and i have fluke leads too

 

Rog48, It was not my intent to question your ability or experience. I was reacting to the unkind comment about "reinventing the wheel" which you are not responsible for. I found that to be a cheap uninformed shot.

I was simply trying to inform others with less trouble shooting ability of an easy cheap method of wire continuity testing, not live voltage testing. I can talk and teach for hours on end on the proper techniques of testing low voltage circuitry having over 43 years testing and designing under my belt. Buzzers are good for quick checks to isolate grounded, or open wires and I believe I conveyed that in my original post. If you read it carefully I warned that it was dead testing not live testing and discussed proper isolation. Many of our fellow riders are young and do not have the resources to purchase a good digital multimeter. Hence a cheap buzzer was recommended.


The old Triplet meters as pictured in your response thread were known for their good accuracy but I think you know that with their very low internal resistance (20,000 oms/volt) they are very inaccurate when trying to read low voltage circuitry. They drop too much voltage internally. A digital voltmeter with a very high internal resistance is the best tool for reading low voltage accurately.If you are looking for 14.3 volts at the battery terminals, only a high impedance digital voltmeter will give you that accuracy.

Analog meters such as the old Triplets and Simpsons are big, cumbersome, heavy and can sometimes be hard to read in dark confined areas such as poorly lighted garages. Audible indication is easier to discern. They also loose their accuracy do to friction in the pivots and jewels in the needle movement. I can attest to that because I repaired many of them in my youth while working in a test lab.

As for test leads, I presently have a bag full of different length jumpers with various clips and probes which I used extensively while performing a multitude of testing and verification of protective relay circuits, alarms and supervisory controls.

As far as noise goes, that can be debated and is very subjective. I never did a db level test comparing a jet engine vs a 345,000 volt air blast circuit breaker being tripped open, but let me assure you, it sounds worse than any big ordinance going off. I can compare these sounds because I have experienced both being inside and outside of an Abrams tank firing it's gun. The air blast breaker wins. After excessive exposure to this noise over a lifetime career has certainly taken it's toll in regards to my hearing.

By the way, I've been testing since 1969.

Are you still working for Delta?