I reinstalled the distributor in my '56 Mk1. I now have to install the wires to the cap. I searched “spark plug wires” in the archives to get an idea of what the wire resistance should be with the Champion bowtie plug caps. I found a lot of good information and have a multi-meter but, what setting should I use when performing the test? My meter ohm choices: 200, 2000, 20k, 200k, 2000k. And, what meter reading do you use as the digital display cycles - the first one, the final one?
Thanks
Bruce,
The wires will typically be in the 5K Ohm range, so the 20K range would be a match. If you tried the 2000 range it would read 1999.
If your meter doesn’t have an autorange function, then just start with the low range and turn the switch up until it stops reading 1999.
Dear Bruce,
If you use a setting which is out of range, then the meter will typically display that - refer to the manual - mine just displays “1” with no decimal points when out of range. If you start with a high range, e.g. 2000k and the answer turns out to be 13,000 ohms, then the meter will display “13”. It’ll also display “13” when set to the 200k or 20k ranges but perhaps with more precision. 13,000 ohms, or 13k, will be out of range if it is set to just 200 or 2000 ohms.
The expected answers will probably be between 3k and 15k roughly and it makes no difference which it is as the spark has to jump a gap at the end of the cable - effectively infinite resistance.
kind regards
Marek