Must Have Mechanics Tool. How To Find Short And Open Circuits Fast. Make More Money On Flat Rate.

30 years ago I was an auto electric technician and to locate unintentional grounds we'd use a sealed beam headlamp bulb, some long jumper wires, a turn signal flasher and a small compass to find shorts to ground (unintentional grounds) in wiring circuits/harnesses. We'd power the headlight bulb through long jumper wires from the battery with the flasher inline before going to the shorted circuit in question (whether tapping into the fuse box circuit for it or further down the line in the harness somewhere). The circuit would be energized, the light would provide a safe load in the shorted circuit and also illuminate on and off as the flasher opened and closed while the short was present. Then we could disconnect and eliminate portions of the affected circuit or wiring harness and/or when we honed in on the suspected location or area of the actual short just pass the compass over the areas where the wiring harness were and watch the compass indicator arm sweep back and forth as the shorted circuit was energized/deenergized until the general or exact location of the short was identified which would be indicated by the compass indicator not moving back and forth anymore.

I am a retired avionics technician. We call this the fox and the hound. It's best used with a wiring diagram and after you disconnect the connectors of the open or shorted wire. Glad you discovered it and I agree they work great.

Good tool I’ve been a lift tech over 30 yrs. Did troubleshooting old skol. One thing I noticed you didn’t do is You didn’t heat shrink tube over electrical butt connector. Moisture can get inside & you have another short ( corrosion ). Good informative video

This tool is great to have. Works 90% of the time. 10% is experience.

I purchased the Power Probe 4 Master Kit containing the ECT 3000 several years ago. I chose the 4 over the 3 because of its additional features, such as multimeter functions, frequency testing, injector testing and such, also having a circuit breaker that automatically resets. But hindsight being 20/20, I think I would have saved a little money and just got the PP3. Those functions can easily be done separately with the multimeters I already had a no additional cost.

I purchased a Mac tools fault finder 20 years ago. Still use it today. But yes it can steer you in a wrong direction very easily. Especially when wire goes to a relay , ecm , even a switch.

These tools are the reason why so many auto electrical guys don't use them, they want to be paid by the hr for a reason. As someone who used to do network cables we had line testers that basically did the same. Great video and wish i could afford one but most of my nightmares currently come from vintage stuff that there is no wiring diagrams for lol

Great presentation! You can buy it and repair your problem just by watching you do it. I wish more videos were like yours. It would make learnig a lot more simpler. Thank you.

This might save somebody some cash. I discovered that my inexpensive non-contact voltage tester would react to the output of my battery charger. I used them to troubleshoot a fuse blowing on my tractor. If you already own these items, it's worth a shot. I used the tractor's headlight bulb to limit the current.

I don't even work on cars for a living anymore, but will get one of these the first chance I get. I still work on my own and some of my family's vehicles.

So glad you use the terms “short” and “open” , separately because they aren’t the same and it’s so annoying when people do that cause it’s very incorrect! Thank you and well done video.

Harbor freight has the one tool you used, from a different manufacturer called Cen-Tech for $20. Same thing but uses internal 9volt batteries that it comes with instead of the vehicles 12v. Even has two different tones to pick from for you liking and a canvas zip up case that holds all the components. Cant imagine what that entire kit cost you bought but i know just the power probe 3 is around $ 300 plus all the other stuff in that kit, it isnt cheep.

A good Fox and Hound used correctly by an experienced tech is worth its weight in gold for sure! (Not automotive per say but have done pretty much all manner of electronics over the past 20 years)

I learned something new today, thank you

Some decades ago we used a time domain reflectometer to check wires/cables. You could calibrate it to say a piece of 16ga or 14ga wire (whatever you had issues with) and then hook it up to your problem child. It would tell you how far from the hookup a short or open was and additionally if there was a change in resistance anywhere in the wire.

Holy cow. That was amazing. Good job showing how to use it. Thanks.

Thank you for sharing 🎉👏🏾👏🏾😃🥇👍🏾🙏🏾

I love the demonstration! Great video and well explained!

I’ll be buying one soon

Thank you! I've taken it to the dealership many times for this. I kept getting the truck back but with same issue. Shame on them.