thanks James..
was thinking more like tail light or brake light level of current flow ..
not something like starter current draw.

lol..even seen this ?
someone left an important ground off for engine-to-body ...
and when starting or running, the throttle cable turns red hot, since
it's the only thing acting as a ground.

Scott

On 9/14/2015 5:23 PM, James wrote:
> Hi Scott,
>
> 1/3 Volt is acceptable in a low current situation - but if it's in the ground connection for a starter motor or a radiator fan motor, that's too high... overheating looms.
>
> Great point about star washers!
>
> James
> Ottawa, ON
>
>> Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:55:20 -1000
>> From: scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM
>> Subject: Re: Intermittent hot start problem - check all connections!
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>
>> Nice to read this James.
>>
>> I'm sure you know this brilliant test/trick...
>> to measure the 'current drop' across a ground connection.
>>
>> to do this ..one energizes the circuit,
>> put meter of DC voltage scale,  leads on both sides of the ground..like
>> on body and wire ..
>> the read milivolts ..
>> ideally this part of the circuit 'drops' or uses zero voltage of this 12
>> volts DC circuit .
>> in practice it will be a few millivolts, that you can measure.
>> I think 300 milivolts ( roughly 1/3 of a volt ) is acceptible..above
>> that , not good.
>>
>> also ..great, great trick for grounds with screw-eyes on the wires .
>> Find a 'multi-star' pointy washer ..put it between screw eye and body ...
>> the points dig in ...excellent ground that way.
>> I have noticed this on Renault cars starting in 1970 at the tail lights..
>> On  an 85 mercedes I own ..they have huge ( 1/2 inch across almost ..and
>> on a small screw too ..like 6 mm screw or stud  ) star washers on the
>> front turn signal housings.
>>
>> but yeah...Connections ..it's very often connections.
>> I swear, counting all vehicles and electronic and house devices...I work
>> on and fix 'connections' many Hours a week, every week.   No
>> exaggeration either.
>>
>> scott
>>
>> On 9/14/2015 11:17 AM, James wrote:
>>> oh..fwiw ..in all things car performance related ..I find poor
>>>>>> connections being the real cause as much as a good 60 to 70 % of the
>>>>>> time...and it being 'a component' that's bad the rest of the time.
>>>>>> ...i.e. it's not 'always'  A Component at all.
>>> As someone who teaches electronics for a living, and has spent all of his driving lifetime dealing with "old cars" (our family fleet averages 18 years old!), I want to strongly echo this observation.  Very strongly.  Very, very strongly!
>>>
>>> Always check every electrical connection in a circuit.  Never assume that 30 year old little plastic connector and it's aluminum or brass strips is still 'all right'.  I had a Rabbit once that had a completely dead ignition system, due to a single bad crimp in a single relatively inaccessible plastic connector.... it was hard to reach, but surely that little wire was find, right???
>>>
>>> James
>>> Ottawa, ON
>>>
>