Variac Meters not working

[TubeGuy]

So on top of the problems with that Pro I mention in another thread, I went to hook it up to my variac, and I hear a rattling sound coming from the variac. I opened it up and one of the nuts that holds the leads to the threaded screw on the meter came loose. No problem, I put it back on and tightened it up.

Now BOTH the voltage and amperage meters do not function. They functioned fine before, even with the loose nut. The variac puts out voltage like it should, but its pretty irrelevant since the meter does not work and I therefore have no idea how much its putting out, or if my amp is drawing a ton of current. I checked everything for continuity, nothing is loose. Fuses are intact.

Any ideas? I'm starting to think I'm cursed.

[Alex R]

Maybe when you turned the nut the screw turned round too in the body of the meter, and broke the connection inside. Take the back off the meter and have a look?

[Enzo]

Or disconnect the meter from the variac and test it by itself. You should be able to connect some AC voltage to the meter terminals from SOMETHING in your shop - a 6v transformer, a wall socket, something. And see if it deflects. DO NOT do that with the current meter.

But you can clip the current meter in place of a mains fuse in some piece of gear that uses a 100 watts or so and see if it deflects.

If they were DC meters I might hazzard my DMM probes onto the meter terminals looking for continuity. But AC meters sometimes are just DC meters with rectifiers, so the diode test would be required. And the current meter likely has a low resistance shunt, so an open movement would stillleave the shunt.