Thread: How to use a volt meter

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In another thread a few guys were talking about converting an old point system over to HEI. What I done in my 1968 chevy with a 327. Is took out old point Dis. And replaced it with a HEI dis. Don,t knnow what it came off of. It,s the kind with the coil mounted on top. Everyone was saying the old point dis. has a 6 volt wire going to it. And that it may have a resistor built into wire. The wire on my truck has no resistor on it anywhere that I can see. And I have been runing the HEI dis. for a while. The truck seams to crank and run okay. I want to check the wire to see if it has 12 volts. But don,t know to use a volt meter. Thier is one around the house however. But I have never use it before. How do you connect it up? Also, could all this have somthing to do with the volage Reg. or Alt? Thankss, John.

John: Denny W is correct, in that it would be easier to explain if we could see the face of it, but here are some general bits of info.

What you probably have is what is termed a MULTI METER, because it does more than just read DC voltage. They also read AC (house type) Voltage, ohms (resistance) etc. There are 2 types of dials, analog (Has a sweep hand like a tachometer) and digital (LED numbers show up on the display) Of the two, the digital is easier to use and more accurate, as it will show you very finite readings, and with an analog you have to sort of guess.

On the face will be a dial with segments. One will read DC voltage, one will read AC voltage, Ohms, etc. and you will have a black lead with a probe, and a red lead with a probe. The black always goes to the plug marked common or ground. There are two other female plugs, and I don't have mine in front of me to look at, but one should have a +, or maybe voltage written by it. That is where the red one goes.

To use it on your car, you turn the dial to the DC portion, and pick a scale higher than what you are trying to test, in this case, 12 volts. Depending on your meter, it might have a 20 volt setting, or 50, or whatever. If it has an on-off switch, turn it on, and touch the black probe to the negative on your battery, and the red one to the positive. If you have done it correctly, the needle, or digits should read about 12-14 volts. You won't get shocked with the car battery, but don't go probing on the AC scale until you get a manual for your unit and read up on it.

Hope this very basic info helps get you pointed in the right direction. What the multi meter lets you do on the DC scale is see how much actual voltage you have between a ground and the power supply.