Absolutely not recommended and strongly so.
GOOGLE
LOAD DUMP
Second negative to cable disconnect testing...
An open or short in a stator winding or in the rectifier bridge will cause PARTIAL charging. Well above the minimum needed to keep an engine running "with a battery disconnect"
And THAT is exactly what this cheap tester does for a living - tests for stator and rectifier faults. A burned stator or compromised rectifier is a death rattle for the alternator. Want to find a problem now, or in heavy traffic?
I was sitting in Celso's shop when a customer lifted a battery cable on a 2008 Ford Focus. "See the engine died" he said. He blew the ECU. He did not have the 300 dollars to buy a rebuilt computer. The last I saw of the car it was gathering dust. I am still puzzling why he thought he had a problem when the engine kept running with the battery disconnected. The genius had to have done it before and somehow rationalized it was a sign of a problem.
What I wrote is not myth or hype. Sometimes an ECU can withstand a LOAD DUMP. Do you feel lucky? Some ECU's cost a thousand dollars and involve a several week wait. Did I discuss ignition key code reset fees? Or multiple ECU CHASSIS PROCESSOR failure?
Please do yourself a favor and forget suicide theory. The cost of the meter is dead cheap. Using it is 4th grader complicated and you an impress the first person who you diagnose.
The test must be conducted AT THE ALTERNATOR and not anywhere else in the system.
