Electrical troubleshooting 101?

[Joelzme]

Can anyone suggest a good place to learn basic automotive electrical circuit troubleshooting? I need to check some voltages on a few circuits in my car, but I don't know how to do this w/o striping the wires, which would obviously not work. I know there has to be a way to check these circuits to see if they are grounding out, but how do I go about doing this? Need to learn.

Thanks,
Joel

91 ranger 2.3L XLT

 

[MAKG]

You know, that's a good question.

I learned from hobbyist electronics (in high school) plus a few auto-specific techniques, especially skillful use of straight pins (you can make an inconsequential hole in insulation with that, or else push it into a connector, "backprobing" it -- and then you have a nice place to hook up a voltmeter).

If you understand Ohm's Law and Kirchoff's Loop rule (total signed voltage drop around a any circuit loop is zero), you have 90% of it.

 

[Joelzme]

Well the strait pin idea is a great idea. I understand ohms law and will look up the other. Got any specific sites? I think I am just going to pickup one of those electrical Haynes manuals to teach me but if anyone has sites, I'd love to read up on them!

Joel