Tracking down a short

67Dart273 said
Sorry, again, incorrect.

A voltmeter will tell you NOTHING. This is because a voltmeter draws almost ZERO current, and will show a reading at very very low leakage current. Hell try this:

Find one of your cars with a little dirty battery. This might be tough in the modern day and age. Stick one probe of your voltmeter on the hot post of the battery, then probe around different spots on top of the battery CASE

If there's enough moisture and dirt on there, YOU WILL get a voltage reading.

That is WHY some of my posts are this involved. You must measure CURRENT, not voltage.

I really didn't want to get into a pissing match about this but I am correct.
Sorry to the OP and we can take it to pm's if you want to discuss it.
If you put a volt meter in series with a load you will read voltage which is exactly what you are doing with a volt meter going in series with the negative terminal. If there is some load the meter will read but if the circuit is open you will get no reading.
The meter set to voltage is nothing more than an analog test bulb.

If you connect a bulb(load) in series with a volt meter and a battery the volt meter will read voltage but not the full battery voltage. If the load was a dead short you will read the originating voltage but if the load has any resistance the voltage reading will be less than the source voltage.
Try it and you will see.