how do i tell which is power and which is the acc wire with my multimeter. i just bought it and have only used it twice and ive lost the little booklet that came with it. so im still getting used to it.

power will always have power
acc will only have power wen the acc is turned on in the ignition

put the black wire on the ground then touch the red wire on the wire yur testing. then the multimeter will show u a reading

power will always have power
acc will only have power wen the acc is turned on in the ignition

put the black wire on the ground then touch the red wire on the wire yur testing. then the multimeter will show u a reading

ok maybe i should re word the question. commone sense i have so i know that one has constant power and the other only when the key is turned. but i dont want to grab the wire to find out. so how do i use my MULTIMETER to find out. i know the red one is power but im not sure which out of the other 4 is the acc.

what i really want to know is what setting should the dial on my multimeter be set on and which of the 3 holes should the + - be plugged into and what order so i can get a reading to determin which out of the last 4 wires is acc.

DCV, hmmm 20 i think? Something like that. You're measuring DC voltage. You dont need to bar any wires, just shoving the point of the probe down into the socket should be sufficient enough to test it.
Put the car on acc, test for which wires have power. Then turn acc off and test the wires again, whichever one has no power is the acc wire (may want to chuck acc on again just to maek sure).

thank you maddog thats more what i was looking for. now is there any order for the test wire's from the multimeter. what i mean is can i plugg them in anyway i want , its just there's 3 holes for it, do i plug the positive (red wire) in the top hole and the negative (black wire) under it??

my multimemter docs....

i have 3 ports aswell..

common input (red +)
common measuerment (black -)
10A input

my docs say red n black in portd 1&2, and port3 is for like ur house curcuit testing or something, im not an electrician, plus my meter is a $17 rocketship from DSE :-)

every page in my docs say ports 1 and 2, doesnt even go into the 3rd port.

<shrug> does what im after, set it to 20V DC, and test away :-) i been monitoring my cars 12v battery levels with fine.

so yer, red, black, and go for it, btw, theres a reason i bought a 17$ one, so i can blow it up learning :)

and afaik, the cars chassis any anything metal is negative grounding i think, best have someone confirm that, as in the car body is negative.. right guys?

IF I MAY SAY a testlight would of been A MILLION times easier to use in this situation

imo test lights are gay :P Multimeters do cost a few bucks more but u can also measure voltages and resistance..which comes in handy sometimes.

there's two inputs for your multimeter...although i can't read what they say on the image you've scanned in, there would be one for a 'high current' input and one for normal(which is what you need to use).

Yes, set it to 20 in the DCV section. Just keep the black (ground/earth) probe on a metal part of the car, and keep prodding at terminals with the red probe until you get a reading. Yes, you will be able to get a reading from shoving the probe into the sockets in the connectors. If not, shove a paper clip in there...use ur common sense ;)

Its easy, you'll get the hang of it easy.

BTW, any of u guy's $17 multimeter probes died yet? For some reason, they break at the bananna plug/cable joint. where it goes right angles. I've soldered it back a coupla times already, hopefully it isn't affecting my readings lol

a multimeter has been my best friend during my install