sg tools short finder

hydro70guy · Mar 8, 2017

Someone was talking about how the sg tools short finder helped find where short was in diagnosing trouble with truck. My question is
how does it work? Mostly just curious.

Janicholson · Mar 8, 2017

The finder works by putting current into the wire by intermittently connecting the circuit to full voltage. (kindof like a self resetting circuit breaker or turn signal flasher. the current in the wire is sensed by a hand held meter (see the pic) and where the meter stops wiggling, in the harness you have found the short. I have used mine 10 times or so and it paid itself off quickly. I have found pinched wires between the trans and engine, screws through looms under floors, worn insulation at a sharp edge, and flaked off old rubber insulation. Jim
Snap-On has them,

CCer · Mar 8, 2017

If I recall, a signal flasher in the circuit, and an ordinary compass will do the same. The compass needle will jump in one direction as you follow the wire, then will change direction when you cross over the problem.

1970-1655 · Mar 8, 2017

I had a short in a motorhome wiring years ago. I took it to a shop near home and after $1300, he said it was fixed. Wife paid him while I was at work and we picked it up after he closed. Never got the short fixed. Took it to another shop and he messed with it for a week and thought he fixed it. $900 later and 1 mile up the road, the fuse blew again. I talked with the Snap-On rep and bought the tester from him. Took me all of 15 minutes to find the short, another 15 minutes to fix it.

Geo-TH,In · Mar 10, 2017

Never hard of such a thing. But I can see how it works.

I do a smoke test. By pass the fuse and look for smoke. The short produces heat.

The short finder sounds safer.

stonerock · Mar 14, 2017

mine is also from snap-on

sg tools short finder

hydro70guy

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Janicholson

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CCer

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1970-1655

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Geo-TH,In

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stonerock

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