Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

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tlbranth
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Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#1

Post by tlbranth »

A while back HF used to give away their little red VOMs with any purchase. I amassed enough of these to stick one in each vehicle and two more in my garage. The meters are actually pretty good and are very handy for diagnosing automotive electrical problems. But the probes that come with the meter are junk and threaten to make the meter unusable. So I went to Vetco Electronics, a cool store not too far from where I live, to see if they had anything I could use to cobble some decent probe leads. But lucky enough, no cobbling necessary. I bought a couple of these lead sets to give them a try:

https://vetco.net/products/shrouded-ban ... e-leads-36

I had to cut 3/8" of the shrouds that cover the banana plugs so they would insert far enough into the meter and they work like a charm. Can't attest to their longevity of course but they appear to be fairly beefy and well made. Vetco tends to carry pretty good stuff.
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pidjones
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Re: Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#2

Post by pidjones »

Paying more for the replacement leads than the meter sold retail for sounds wrong, but that said I have several of those meters and am considering the same fix. But also, remember to change the batteries yearly to avoid leakage damage, and maybe even keeping the batteries ready but not installed for meters left in a trunk/glovebox/tool tray, etc.
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Figor
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Re: Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#3

Post by Figor »

I was just using one of those to check a crank positioning sensor. It was giving a out of spec reading so I double checked with my snap on and the cps was in fact in spec. I imagine with all things chinese accurate function is hit or miss. Just my experience.
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tlbranth
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Re: Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#4

Post by tlbranth »

pidjones wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:05 am Paying more for the replacement leads than the meter sold retail for sounds wrong, but that said I have several of those meters and am considering the same fix. But also, remember to change the batteries yearly to avoid leakage damage, and maybe even keeping the batteries ready but not installed for meters left in a trunk/glovebox/tool tray, etc.
Good call on the battery check. I've ruined more gadgets by not doing that.
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1999 GL1500 SE
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1975 GL1000
1970 CB750
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Sidecar Bob
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Re: Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#5

Post by Sidecar Bob »

FWIW, similar leads are available on eBay for about $2 US (search multimeter leads with the order set to Price + shipping, lowest first), I don't know whether they are the same quality but if you only use them occasionally thy would probably be good enough.
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Re: Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#6

Post by desertrefugee »

Figor wrote: Fri Oct 01, 2021 1:24 pm I was just using one of those to check a crank positioning sensor. It was giving a out of spec reading so I double checked with my snap on and the cps was in fact in spec. I imagine with all things chinese accurate function is hit or miss. Just my experience.
Could very well be the leads... topic of this thread.
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Re: Harbor Freight VOM resurrection

#7

Post by Figor »

Possibly. Definitely worth testing against a known good meter so as to not be replacing a good part for no reason.
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