Diagnosing Electrical Shorts Circuits
This was taught to me by my first employer and is extremely useful:
If you have a short that blows the fuse, it gets expensive and frustrating when the fuse keeps blowing. Remove the fuse and replace it with a headlamp bulb. When you get a short, instead of blowing the fuse, the power surge just lights the bulb, then you fiddle with whatever you think is causing the fault till the bulb goes out or dims (indicating the short is removed).
The beauty of this is that the light bulb absorbs the power from the short and limits the current flow e.g. if you have a 55 watt bulb in place of a fuse, this will allow about 5 amps to flow before it lights up to absorb the excess and in the case of a total short, all you will do is light the bulb not blow a fuse or have a wiring meltdown.
If you have a short that blows the fuse, it gets expensive and frustrating when the fuse keeps blowing. Remove the fuse and replace it with a headlamp bulb. When you get a short, instead of blowing the fuse, the power surge just lights the bulb, then you fiddle with whatever you think is causing the fault till the bulb goes out or dims (indicating the short is removed).
The beauty of this is that the light bulb absorbs the power from the short and limits the current flow e.g. if you have a 55 watt bulb in place of a fuse, this will allow about 5 amps to flow before it lights up to absorb the excess and in the case of a total short, all you will do is light the bulb not blow a fuse or have a wiring meltdown.
Diesel Graham
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