Localizing a Short

[crane operator]

We had a little incident with our 70 ton crane, the driveline hooked the wire loom that comes from the upper swivel in my 70 ton crane, and removed all the wiring from upstairs by ripping it all out. The locator was a life saver on that little project for finding which wires went to what, and I found two wires that were broke within the loom also.

Between it and a simple 12v light tester, we got it back together, but it was no fun at all. The crane has full gauges upstairs, start stop ignition, and full outrigger controls. Probably like 70 wires altogether. This was one of the looms laying on the ground after the driveline hooked it. All the outrigger control wires are white, no number markings.

The one you show in pictures is just like mine.

 

[John Shipp]

Oh my! Nightmare.

 

[crane operator]

We were about a hour away from home, were moving the crane around on the jobsite this spring when it happened. I still had the detroit running, and told them we were done running crane that day. I tied up the remnants of the loom, and slid the crane into gear and motored home.

We did a few work arounds and had it on a job the next week, but I didn't get all the upper stuff back working until late this summer when I had some extra time.

 

[John Shipp]

One of the "to do" projects that get thought about almost every day for months, glad to hear you got it beat. Gives me confidence in this gadget!

Do you use a couple of extra lengths of wire on the transmitter, or clip it close up and turn the sensitivity way down? I notice the tracer pen beeps when anywhere near the transmitter.

 

[crane operator]

I've never used extra wires on the transmitter, I've only just turned sensitivity up and down. Most of the time, I don't have the sender really close to the broken wire, its usually 5-10' away looking for where a wire goes in a loom. You can turn the sensitivity way down, and actually point out a wire almost in a group of 5 or 6, then use a continuity tester or a test light to be sure you have the right one.

 

[sandy]

From what I gather from the PP video, it has its own power source and powers the wire.. you take the "pencil" and run it along the suspect wire until the tone/light shuts off..
That would be great if you had a "fuseable link" in a wire and no wiring diagram to identify it.. Kubota, JD and Yanmar started using them at the starter wire.. it looks like a regular old wire w/ a slight bulge in it to hold the link and ofcourse its in a loom.. You'd look right past it if you didn't know what it was.

the power probe sends a 400 hz sqarewave signal down the wire and this is what the signal tracer picks up