I have no idea how to use a mutilmeter

[bigredhead]

ok.. here's what I know.

The ohm's reading = resistance. ( the headset logo is it's symbol )
You would use this to see if a wire is broken or not, for example, take a regular single strand wire and set your meter to ohms, touch each lead to the ends of the wire and you should get a reading of what ever resistance that wire has. the biger the wire, the less the resistance i beleive.

now cut the wire and check again.. you will get a reading of " o " zero. since there is no circuit, no link ,no resistance and no reading.

If you coil reads zero, then it's " open " or toasted, if it gives a low reading it's not really shot, but it either got hot and has a poor connection .

You also have V-DC and V-AC, AC= Alternating current, and DC = Direct current.

a Battery is direct current, your wall outlet is AC, AC can travel a longer distance without loosing signal, that's why it's used in power lines.

Take a battery (* an AA battery = 1.5 v ) and set your meter to V-DC, check and you should get something like 1.7 on a fully charged one, to 1.1 on a near dead one.. Fun things to play with !!

Your meter has a FUSE , if you ever plug your meter in a wall outlet that is 120 v, 15 amps, 60 hz, and your meter is set to DC it will pop the fuse. If you check the Ohms with your meter in a wall outlet.. i beleive you will also burn the fuse. ( yes.. i've done this !!! )

Gotta go, but i'll be back with more later if i can .

[ATCnut]

Im an electrical engineer with 20+ years of experence in the field. Your problem is not that you do not know how to operate the meter, it is that you do not understand what you are trying to measure. Most community collages have a intro to electronics class offered at night. I would recommend something like that, then you would have a basic understanding of what your are measuring.

[Yardbird]

Since you have a digital meter an infinity reading will probably show up as 'OL' on the display. You should get the same reading when your test leads are not touching each other which is a open circuit. When you touch your leads together you should get a reading anywhere between 0.0 to 0.5 on the display. This would be a short circuit. Usually anything not 0.0 means you are seeing the resistance of your test leads. The longer the leads the more resistance you'll see just like a coil. The more turns in a coil the more resistance you should see. Some digital meters have an offset function where you can 'zero' out the test leads own resistance. But looking at yours in the pic I don't see one. So you'll have to subtract the reading you get when you short the leads together from your actual measurement.

I've been a test equipment calibration technician since 1986 and have calibrated thousands (not an exaggeration) of meters and other types of test equipment. It's good to put that to use and help you out. If you got anymore electrical questions don't hesistate to ask! But I can't help ya if you need to rebuild your engine.

[HaggLE]

atcnut and yardbird

If you have a poor spark or want to make your engine have better ignition, where are the week points in the circuit? What i mean is do coils on bikes either work or not work or do they degrade and affect the performance? If the charge coming from the stator in the bottom of the motor was stronger will that give you a better spark? The CDI unit, are they a case of working or not working or do they get affected with age etc and what are signs of these different components not functioning correctly?

Man im inquisitive...

[ATCnut]

IMHO, Trike electrics are the hardest part of the whole machine. The test procedures that are in the manuals are not really very good, it would take more equipment than a multimeter to do a good test. In my experence most of the problems with electrics are total failures, where the machine just does not run. The most common problem with CDI ignitions is the coil inside the engine case. The only effective way I have found to test electric components is with another running trike of the same model, and to swap parts back and forth. You can isolate the bad part that way. If a trike is running OK, I leave the electrics alone because I find no benifit to changing electrical components.

There were aftermarket electrical system upgrades available back in the day (RoostBoost comes to mind). Most of the people that tried them could not feel a difference.

[83185s]

if u want a new stator coil go to www.hyperparts.com ...they have them for 13.99 ..instead of trailprotrailpro dealers $60-70 ones that are the same thing