Inductive pickup test light
 

I have a no crank situation on my ‘62 Mercury and believe it’s a broken wire somewhere. Anyway probing 62 year old wires with a test light can be a challenge as they’re on the verge of being petrified. So I looked to see if they made an inductive pickup type test light. I’ve never seen one, but sure enough I found this-
https://www.ebay.com/itm/35433165579...BoC6b4QAvD_BwE

Now a few questions. Anyone have something like this? Does it work OK? This one looks like a cheap piece of junk, so if you could recommend a decent one, that would be great.
Thanks

Inductive sensing depends on DC current flow or AC voltage. Your no-start situation sounds like there's no current flowing, so inductive sensing wouldn't help you.

Look into an rf injection tool if you don't want to isolate an open circuit by measuring voltage. Just curious but is there a reason you can't isolate the problem with a voltmeter? Do you already know which wire is open and are trying to repair rather than replace?

RF or ac signal injection is similar to what an electrician or cable tech would use to find an open in a buried cable (bad, painful, and expensive lessons !!!).

As Jack said, inductive sensing won't work for an open wire.

I've never used one, so can't comment on effectiveness nor ease, but here's an example of a cheap version:

https://a.co/d/5cZslmt

I'm sure there are higher quality tools if you need to go there, but I kind of expect a voltmeter would be a simpler approach.

Mike

Here’s a picture of the starter solenoid that is in your engine bay and a picture of how it’s likely wired.

You will need a voltage meter to prove out if it’s working or not, or a 12 volt long pointy test probe.

Basically 12 volts comes into it on one of the smaller wires when you turn the key to energize the solenoid.

This then closes the high current side of it and sends 12 volts to the starter to crank the motor.

So first off in all of this you need 12 volts to the ignition switch.

When you turn the key to the ACC position can you get the radio or the heater fan to come on?

If not then it’s most likely that the ignition switch is not getting fed 12 volts.

Did you do any work to the car prior to this issue taking place ?

Many times we need to take a few steps backwards to see if we did something unintentional.

Also the fact that you stated that the cars wiring is falling apart is a big concern.

Thanks guys.
Yeah, after I thought about it, I realized that it won’t work in my case like was mentioned.