Vintage Diagnostic Test Equipment

[9F94M567042]

Hello Folks,

New to this forum so bear with me if I am not in the right place. Or if not appropriate to post on this forum

I just recently picked up a Sears Craftsmen Diagnostic Oscilloscope but it did not come with any cables or instruction.

I'm thinking this is a 1980's model. There is no model number on it anywhere.

I don't know where to go about locating either of these items. I would appricate any possible leads that anyone might provide.

I'll try and post a picture of it later.

Thank You.

 

[joe_padavano]

If it's this one, it's a model 161.21056. If no one here has a copy, there are a couple of Craftsman tool groups on Facebook.

 

[9F94M567042]

That is it! Can't stand F**book but will check it out. 

[rocketraider]

10 hours ago, joe_padavano said:

 

😍🥰

[Larry Schramm]

On 7/20/2021 at 9:08 PM, joe_padavano said:

If it's this one, it's a model 161.21056. If no one here has a copy, there are a couple of Craftsman tool groups on Facebook.

 

 

I have one of these and it works great on even the old cars.  I use it on my brass era cars. Just need to hook the unit up to 12 volts to run the oscilloscope. 

 

Get an old time auto book that shows how to read the different traces on the scope.

 

If you need a copy of the manual, pm me your email and I will send you a copy for what it costs to copy.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[9F94M567042]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for responding and making an offer to send a copy of the manual. I'm new here so I can't PM anybody yet.

Guess I'll need to read more posts and up my count more!!

[rocketraider]

😻🥰

[DFeeney]

I also have the same Craftsman scope,  I tried to use it once but thought the screen was to small to see small differences in the trace line.   If a person knew how to operate it could this size scope be useful in the old car world.  Thanks,   Don

[Larry Schramm]

On 7/21/2022 at 3:14 PM, DFeeney said:

I also have the same Craftsman scope,  I tried to use it once but thought the screen was to small to see small differences in the trace line.   If a person knew how to operate it could this size scope be useful in the old car world.  Thanks,   Don

 

I use it once in a while.  On 6 volt cars I connect it to a 12 volt battery.  Works fine.  Ask Larry DiBarry who is on this fourm.

Edited July 23, 2022 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[Mark Shaw]

I recently met a former SUN employee who lives locally to help me get my tester fully operational.

 

My SUN Motor Tester:

 

 

[drhach]

Does that scope do anything different from a standard oscilloscope? I'm guessing they simplified the controls for the automotive user. I have a couple of oscilloscopes, I've always wanted to look at my ignition system with them. 

[Bloo]

Comments that follow are for cars with a conventional distributor, points or electronic.

 

It is possible to use a standard oscilloscope. It sure wouldn't be my first choice. I think I did it once. The possibility of blowing out the input circuits of the scope with some unexpected voltage spike would weigh on my mind. Well, unless the scope was old enough to be all vacuum tube based in the input circuits. In that case spikes wouldn't be such a big deal, but you would still need to be sure you were not feeding the input circuits too much voltage.

 

You will have to make some adapters. The basic plan to get a secondary parade pattern (the one most used) is to use capacitive coupling on the coil wire fed to the vertical amplifier. An inductive pickup like the one used on timing lights will work for triggering. clip it on spark plug wire #1, and feed it to the scope for an external trigger signal. Set the timebase on the scope to spread the pattern on the screen appropriately.

 

The primary pattern would come from the tach connection (points wire) fed to the vertical amplifier. Triggering could still come from the inductive pickup on the #1 plug wire.

 

In either case, to look at one cylinder individually, put the inductive pickup on the cylinder in question, and turn up the sweep speed on the scope's timebase until you have only the pattern for one cylinder. A scope with delayed sweep would be nice here. Textronix usually has it, many others would too. If you don't have it, and the scope is triggering too late in the pattern for your liking, put the inductive pickup on one cylinder early. For instance if the firing order is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 and you want to look at #4, put the inductive pickup for triggering on 8. Then spread the pattern out to look at the second cylinder in the pattern (which will be #4).

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Oldtech]

I have used my regular electronic scope to diagnose ignition problems on Ford Electronic ignitions.  Found the problem after the garage gave up.  Bloo's comments are valid although I admit I didn't tale ALL his precautions.