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Transcript

Bad Ground Wire · Mechonomist Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good afternoon, everyone.
• 0:01
  I'm about to show you how I tested for a bad ground wire on the
• 0:07
  Redneck Convertible,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: the 85 Toyota 4Runner.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: It had an intermittent crank or no start condition.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It would not crank and it would not start.
• 0:16
  And I tested it first by using this amp clamp to see the
• 0:22
  amperage going down the
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: positive wire to the starter.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when it cranked, it did crank the first time,
• 0:30
  showed 85 amps the second time it didn't crank it showed zero
• 0:34
  amps so i thought
• 0:36
  maybe it was a bad wire uh hot wire from the battery to the
• 0:41
  starter i voltage
• 0:43
  dropped it and got zero volts so i thought so that was good so
• 0:47
  then i voltage
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: dropped the ground wire which is this right here this is the ground wire
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I voltage dropped the ground wire,
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: and I got 55 millivolts,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: which is too high for a ground wire.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I took the ground wire off,
• 1:07
  and I tested the resistance of the ground wire to see if it
• 1:12
  would still conduct electricity,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: and I did it like this.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I hooked up one of my leads to one end, one of my leads to the other end,
• 1:24
  And what it does is it puts a slight current down the wire and
• 1:30
  sees how much
• 1:30
  resistance it takes to get for that current to get from one end
• 1:34
  to the other.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So this is reading that it's got 1.98 kilo ohms,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: which is almost 2000 ohms,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: which is incredibly high.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: It should be, you know, in the hundreds at the very most.
• 1:58
  so that ground wire is definitely bad um and uh so i'll replace
• 2:06
  that and that
• 2:06
  should fix the problem it's a problem i've been chasing for
• 2:09
  about a year and i
• 2:09
  finally figured it out yesterday i just want to say something
• 2:12
  about this finisserie
• 2:14
  tool i bought this for 35 from china a tool like this from
• 2:19
  snap-on would cost 300
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a snap-on scope, and this is a $2,000 scope.
• 2:27
  I can get this brand name scope,
• 2:30
  you know,
• 2:30
  three-in-one scope,
• 2:31
  four-in-one scope for about $200.
• 2:33
  So I'm all about buying American,
• 2:36
  but when you're talking about things that are one-tenth,
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: the cost of American-made goods.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You just can't,
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: if you're trying to run a business,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: you can't turn it down,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: especially if it's a product that works well like this one does.
• 2:49
  So I'll probably be selling this Snap-on Scope and getting
• 2:52
  Finisserie Scope pretty soon.
• 2:55
  If anybody's interested in buying my Snap-on Scope,
• 2:57
  I could make you a good deal on it.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And anyway, we'll talk to y'all later.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, y'all.