In order to read "voltage" you put the the "across" the posts. The meter fits from negative to positive. If the leads are put on backwards, with a digital meter a polarity sign shows up to the left.

Across means one side to the other side. If you put the leads on the same side of a connected/completed circuit you get 0.00. Here is whats neat stuff. Using this thought you can check for a bad fuse by just reading across the the fuse of a live circuit, end to end without removing them! 0.00 means good. If you get a reading of voltage of the circuit its a bad fuse!

Same thing goes for checking for bad grounds. The negative post of the battery to the body of the car. Its the same side of the circuit. The closer to zero the better the ground. A reading of 0.02 or less is considered good. Why not zero?
That depends on the sensitivity of meter circuits and cleanness of lead points.

The meter is set for DC. It has one with a horizontal line and a dotted line under it. Meters and our cars use symbols because of the language barrier between users around our world.

On AC they use the wave symbol line. Again the leads go "across" the common and the neutral. The third prong on AC is a ground. Technically it is the same as the neutral. Its a safety idea for portable tools.

You'll learn to love your volt meter and throw away your test light. I read where you found one of the flaws of those things. There are plenty more on todays circuits.


Now, you wanted to read "current" draw for your drain down. You are looking for a "ampere" read out.

This is done by putting the meter "in line" with one side of the circuit.

This means between the "supply" and the "load". "Battery" and "car". One lead on a supply connection and one to the car circuit. These two places (one each) are first disconnected and the meter with the leads, fits between them.

The meter has to be set to read "amperes". Most meters can only read DC amperes. There are two ranges. A 10 amps one (most used). Another one is a lot smaller. It divides only one of the amperes by 1000 (milli) but only displays about 300 of them (300 ma.).

You will probably never use this setting unless you are in to electronics so ignore it. Because on the 10 amp setting you will get 0.1 or 0.001 resolution depending on grade of the meter.

The reason I felt I had to explain this in more detail. This is because the load and current draw goes through the meter. This setting is one of the settings that you can ruin a meter. The other is in the "OHM" setting for checking continuity or resistance of a circuits "load".

When you said you think you "smoked the meter" I knew you needed more knowledge. You already have half the experience of using the meter. Hope it was the fuse.

I hope this has wet your appetite for more knowledge. Its good mind food!