Phil Allison wrote:

"Don Pearce the Geriatric Fool "

For a quick and dirty test, just connect a multimeter on the ohms range.
The needle should flick across to short circuit, then drop back towards
high resistance. The time it takes to drop back is proportional to the
value of the capacitor. If the needle ultimately drops back to open
circuit, the cap is probably ok.

** ROTFLMFAO !!!!!!!!!!

Hey grand-dad !!

Got any ****ing idea how long it is since " multimeters " had needles ??

Bet your pathetic old AVO has a nice BENT one - eh ?

Why don't you **** the HELL off - grand dad -

& spare the planet you dumb as dog **** WRONG advice.

...... Phil

Calm down Phil. You'll give grandad a heart attack.

The ohm test across a C does give some indication of the status of the
C.
If the cap is shorted, a DMM just shows a very low R number immediately.

If its not shorted, and doesn't have a stored charge (that well might
bend a meter needle in granpa's work shed), then the DMM will eventually
read OL for most plastic caps at least after some time as the cap
charges up with applied Vdc from the meter via the meter's series high
output resistance.

Most ohm meters produce a very low Vdc to test ohm values and a cap's
integrity needs to be tested at a Vdc across the cap for quite some time
and near the V rating of the cap, and when the temp is raised to near
operational if need be and with a CRO connected across the cap to detect
Vdc movements or intermittent noise/arcing in the cap.

Patrick Turner.