Troubleshooting OD electrical question

[nevets]

This question is going to show my ignorance about electrical circuits and proper use of a mutimeter but here goes...

The Healey tech article says to test for voltage at terminal A3 of the fuse block with ignition on.

The instructions for testing DC voltage supplied with my multimeter says touch the black test probe tip to the negative side of the circuit and touch the red probe tip to the positive side of the circuit.

How do I do this?

Thanks!

 

[TimK]

Does your car have 1. the original positive ground, or has it been converted to 2. negative ground? If #1, connect the red probe to ground (chassis) and the black probe to the wire at the fuse block. If #2, do the reverse.

 

[Keith_M]

Does your car have 1. the original positive ground, or has it been converted to 2. negative ground? If #1, connect the red probe to ground (chassis) and the black probe to the wire at the fuse block. If #2, do the reverse.

and don't worry -- if you happen to do this backwards, it won't hurt anything. You'll just read negative voltage.

 

[nevets]

Excellent! Car is still original positive ground. Thanks!

 

[BJ8Healeys]

The subject of your post indicates you are troubleshooting an O/D electrical problem. If you are, what is the problem you are trying to troubleshoot?

 

[nevets]

Steve Byers

I was going through a list of troubleshooting procedures to hopefully discover why my OD solenoid fails to actuate. I was able to establish that the solenoid is functional, so the problem might be: relay, dash switch, transmision switch, throttle switch (unlikely) or faulty wiring somewhere. The OD was working fine but quit at some point.

Thanks to tips from Tim and Keith, I figured out an easy way to do some of the testing using a simple test light I made with a 12v bulb and some alligator clips (I made it a long time ago for settting static timing on an old VW beetle)...actually easier than the multimeter, although the multimeter will be useful for other testing such as checking wire continuity.

Thanks!

 

[healeyblue]

my bet is on the switch on the side of the transmission.