"92 Trooper Probable Short

Rosie said:

Went to start and got a loud "pop", no starter turnover. Removed battery, checked each battery cable for continuity with ground with a multimeter, both showed continuity. Hooked a multimeter lead to each battery cable and got a predictable (for a short) continuity tone. Removed fuses one at a time until the tone stopped. The culprit was "meter gauge". The fuse was OK which baffles me. What does that do, and can I safely try to start the car if I remove it? My battery is fully charged. Thanks for any help!

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The popping sound could come from anywhere including a loose cable. The cranking circuit is not fuse protected.
Where did you place your test leads to when performing the continuity test?

Reading each battery cable to ground on the resistance scale and you got continuity on both with a meter. That would be no resistance which is what I would expect to see on the negative one. But not the positive one. I'm not familiar with "meter gauge" .

The "meter gauge" fuse refers to the instrument cluster, so maybe verify all of that stuff is working properly in an attempt to notice a fault

Shawn Anthony said:

The popping sound could come from anywhere including a loose cable. The cranking circuit is not fuse protected.
Where did you place your test leads to when performing the continuity test?

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One lead to one battery cable, the other to the engine block. Then the same with the other cable. My meter was set for ohms and I got a continuity tone with both cables. Then to test for a short, I put a meter lead on each battery cable, again set for ohms, again receiving a continuity tone, and pulled and replaced fuses one by one until the tone went off. The fuse that stopped the tone was labeled "meter gauge:. Don't know if this was related to the pop or not, but it seems like I have a short in whatever circuit is controlled by that fuse. Thanks for your reply.

itsmehb said:

Reading each battery cable to ground on the resistance scale and you got continuity on both with a meter. That would be no resistance which is what I would expect to see on the negative one. But not the positive one. I'm not familiar with "meter gauge" .

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I agree. Getting continuity between the positive cable and ground would seem to indicate a short. Tomorrow I'm going to put the battery back in, remove that fuse, and try to start it. I'll post the results. Thanks for your reply.

turnerd said:

The "meter gauge" fuse refers to the instrument cluster, so maybe verify all of that stuff is working properly in an attempt to notice a fault

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Thanks for the reply, it makes sense that it is something in the instrument cluster--I'm surprised that the fuse didn't blow.

On the positive battery cable you have a node where 4 parallel circuits are connected. The big cable is obviously your starter cable.
The little bit smaller cable is to your power distribution fuse block. And another cable is your charge circuit. Also In this power distribution block is where your "S" circuit for the alternator becomes the secondary power supply.

Disconnect each of parallel the power circuits from this node and perfom the continuity test again. This will reduce your troubleshooting time by more than 1/3. As it will provide a clear direction as to what direction to move to for step #2.

Thanks Shawn. I'll post the results.