Gary Hedlin <superdak@gmail.com> wrote:
: You should have a spare in there, so you almost have to test it by
: swapping them out. If it were me, i'ld pony up the $3 and get a new
: one. If it still does it, at least you have a spare.
: P.S. I dunno if you can test them with a multimeeter. Is it even
: possible? If so, i'ld like to know. :)
Yep, you can do a continuity test on the switched terminals while
you apply a current across the coil terminals. However, that doesn't
necessarily tell you the whole story; I have seen some relays fail
in weird ways. If you test a relay like I described above, when
you apply a current to the coil terminals and you don't get continuity
across the switched terminals (or if continuity doesn't break between
the common and NC contact on a DPST relay) then you can be pretty sure
that the relay is toast. However, even if it passes the above test,
the relay *may* still be bad. I had a heck of a time tracing down
a wiring problem with the fog lights on my '01 Ram. I tested the
relay and it seemed to be working fine, but the darn lights just
wouldn't go on when they were supposed to. I finally discovered that
when the relay was out of the truck it tested fine, but once it was
in the truck and was actually trying to switch a load, as opposed to
just a continuity test on a multimeter, it failed to work. Perhaps
instead of a multimeter, a 12v lamp or other device which would
actually pull some amps would be a more realistic test than a multimeter.
I didn't try that on that particular relay, I was too busy chucking
it in the nearest garbage can so that nobody else would fall prey
to its evil plan. :-) However, like Rascal already suggested,
probably the easiest thing to do would be to find another relay in
the PDC with the same part number on it (usually they are all the
same anyway), make sure its for a system that you know is working,
and swap 'em, see what happens.
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 67 Coronet, 70 Cuda, 90 Dakota 'vert, 92 Ram 4x4, 96 Dakota |
| 96 Intruder 1400, 96 Kolb FireFly, 99 Cherokee, 01 Ram 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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