[SEL] Re: IHC mag/distributor question.

[Curt]

Rob,
Gotta disagree with you mate. For years I did TV and radio 
troubleshooting for profit and a analog meter will do a pretty decent 
job of testing caps. You can't do it with a digital meter (hence one of 
several reasons I don't own one) but with a good old fashioned analog 
meter you can see what is happening.
Put your meter on the highest kOhm setting, 10k or 100k. Hook your leads 
up to the cap using no fingers (use roach clips), it should read 
infinite resistance. Now reverse the leads. You should see a momentary 
blip of the needle with a slow return to infinity. The higher the mF of 
the cap the slower the return (reverse charging). While this is no way 
to determine the actual capacitance, it IS an excellent measure of 
voltage storing function, and an excellent insulator leak test in low 
voltage application. Since it is doubful that the actual surface area of 
conductors has changed without either opening entirely or shorting 
entirely, it is a good diagnostics tool that tells you where you need to 
look next.
Curt


Rob Skinner wrote:

>>the capacitor with a VOM and it checked good.
>>    
>>
>
>Sorry mate.  You can't check capacitor's "goodness" with a
>VOM.  You can check a capacitor's "badness" with a VOM.  For
>that matter, you can't check for "goodness" with a simple
>capacitance meter, either.  
>
>Your VOM pumps out what?  Nine volts?  A capacitor might
>"look" good when being tested with nine volts, but as soon
>as you put it in the real-life circuit with 400 volts, it
>will leak electrons like classified information through
>Scooter Libby's mouth.
>
>Rob
>
>
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