How many amps?

[fritz]

I am trying to find out how many amps are drawn through the wires from the ignition key switch. Specifically, the wire going to the coil & the wire going to the starter. Anyone have any ideas on this?

Basically it is for an alarm system which is only rated @ 8 amps. There is no mention of relays in the instructions. My existing immobiliser doesn't use any relays on these wires, but then I dont know if it is rated at more than 8 amps?

I own a cheapie multimeter but have no idea if it is able to measure ampage?

HELP

[fritz]

Crisis over.

Its actually very simple to measure amps as I found out (even though my instruction manual made no mention of it).
Just cut the wire you want to measure & insert the meter between the cuts.
The wires I was interested in were rated at about 4 & 5 amps , so the alarm should work no worries.
Whoo-hoo!

[Colin]

if youve cut the wire fit a hidden kill switch or solder them togeather

[fritz]

The immobiliser gets inserted where the wire was cut.
But yes, if you want cheap protection, just insert a switch.

[Brayden]

Making sure of course that the switch can handle the load running through it. I made that mistake once before and when the switch burned out the car just said no go.