So yeah, although I have been working on cars for a bit, I always avoided the multimeter. Now that I am installing an alarm it's nessecary. So question is; how can I use my multimeter to test for the door pin switch wire in the panel of the dash above the fuse box? And while I am here, How can I use the darn thing to test for the door lock and unlock wires to use for the alarm? I know the kind of flameage I am asking for here, but please, take it easy. Thanks in advance to whoever is going to drop some knowledge.

 

You wanna do what is called a continuity test. Depending on what meter you have, depends on the few different ways you can do it. Whether its a Fluke or not, you should have an impedance (ohms) symbol function on there. When the leads are not touching anything, it should read O.L ....... assuming its a digital read out. O.L means over load, which means an open circuit (no continuity). When both leads are touching two wires that are part of the same circuit, you should read some kind of resistance in between the two points (ie: 0.2 , 40.1 , 2.6k ....).

So basically a good way to test to see where each wire is located is pretty easy. Just start with a known point. So like the lock button. Go to the side of the lock switch that you need to find, secure the prob lead on that wire / lug / switch end , and then probe around the fuse box to find the other end. When the reading goes from O.L to a fairly small number, thats your wire. Now some wires may appear to be part of the same circuit, meanwhile there not. A common cause of this is because of ground or return. All returns pretty much go the same place, so it may look like the same circuit, but your really just reading the common return. Does that make sense? You wanna check the +12V side of anything when doing this. And of course, DISCONNECT the battery before doing any of this.

 

These might help you out a little:

 

OK, question 1

When testing for ohms I place the red probe in the slot that says "V OhM SIGN mA"?

Question 2 there are 5 settings on the ohms side of my multimeter "200 2000 20k 200k 2000k" which one to use?

Question 3 if I probe at the oarange wire at the door pin with the black lead of the meter, I probe the kick panel area for the other side of the wire?

Thanks so much, and feel free to call names. ;)

 

1) Yes

2) Set it on the lowest setting of 200. When you find a continuity, it's going to be a very low resistance of < 10 ohms. If you have it set too high, it might not detect it properly.

3) Sounds like what you want to do, yes

And happy birthday!

 

hmm... those wiring diagrams would be a bit more helpful if they were in color...

zip files of the pdfs are in this forum section though at the top... and i would say they would be ALOT more easier than probing around with a multimeter.

 

Sweetness, thanks fellas, and thanks for noticing my b-day! :D