MultiMeters for Others

I am typing from years of experiance using multimeters.

Riders will see references to multimeters to test this that and the other , there are cheep and good ones out there for 5$ or so , usually digital.

Personally for someone first time purchasing a multimeter i do suggest using a anolog one [the needle movement variety] there is several reasons for this.

1.Whilst not as accurate as a digital they are far easyer to look at and see whats goin on for the first time user.
2.Do get one that has a beep funtion when needing a continuity test [thats to see it a wire is not broken from end to end] as then you have a audio and visual confirmation , and when you get used to it you'll find one does not even look at the meter.
3.generally they are easy to read looking at the ohms funtion too .
4.looking at volts will read 12v and no waiting for the meter to catch up.

There is a prerequizet , that as on a bike you do not turn on ignition and hit start until you know its outta gear or pull the clutch , so with a anolog multimeter , one has to make sure if your reading volts that the selector switch is on the correct range of volts , ect for the other measurements.

I have both , digital and anolog , digital for accuracy , and anolog for the workhose , which is always normally used.

One thing anolog's do not like is being dropped and reversed polarity's.

Still , if you find a anolog one cheep enough i personally think you should go for it first...

 

I'm with you on that one HooNz, I have the same arrangement. Bought 5 of the cheapy pocket digitals, one for each vehicle I have plus a few backups/gifts to worthy buddies. There is no substitute for an analog movement, period.

 

another thing to note is that if you are using your cheapy digital that is 10 years old, the battery may need to be changed. I used my brother's cheap meter to measure the secondary windings of my coils, and they were OL. I thought it was weird that both coils would have failed, so i checked my brothers working nighthawk's coils, and got OL as well. The next weekend i went to work on it again, i brought my meter from work, still digital, auto ranging, which i'm required to change the battery once a year, I got a normal reading. I'm assuming this was a battery issue, as he wasn't aware they could be changed, and hasn't touched it from new... Just a thought.

 

Good point to remind us about, I've been bitten in the butt by that once or twice myself.

 

Not to mention you should check/change the battery periodically just to prevent corrosion.



80 XJ650G
05 YFM660