Fluke 87 Continuos Beeping Problem Fixed

[fornext]

I've bought my Fluke 87 Meter new about 20 years ago.  I love it, so today when I turned it on and it beeped continuously in every position of the rotary switch, I immediately searched for answers.  I found manuals, but the continuous beeping was not mentioned. 

Someone suggested replacing the input receptacle block, those run about $32 on ebay.

Instead I tried cleaning the receptacles with contact cleaner on Q-tips, there was a lot of grime in there, but it still beeped afterwards.

Looking closely I saw no cracks in the receptacle plastic or around any of the solder joints.  But I re-soldered all of the receptacle solder joints using fresh solder, the idea being that there might have been hard to see stress cracks around a pin.  And it worked.  No new receptacle was needed.

Perhaps this will save someone else some time and money.

[retiredcaps]

Thanks for sharing your fix with us. 

An alternative to buying a new one is to DIY as per modemhead.

http://mrmodemhead.com/blog/fluke-80-series-jack-assembly-rebuild/

Just keep in mind the DIY above has its limitations and if you are working with this meter on your job with high voltage, you would be better off buying the Fluke issued part number.

[tibimakai]

I had the same thing with a Fluke 189, picked it up from craigslist for $140. Excellent condition otherwise.
Un-soldered the receptacles and measured them. The amp ones, were showing a short. I have left it overnight in IPA, next morning they did not have short at all.
Soldered it back in and no more beeping.

[bluey]

My Fluke 87 started beeping when I tried to use it again after leaving it sitting under the house on an aircon external unit hot and vibrating.

Solder joints look fine. Small amount of debris in the receptacles. Probably just enough in the groove in the bottom corner to short the halves of the terminals. A good look with a lighted magnifier helps. Repeated cleaning with alcohol soaked q-tips until properly clean fixed mine.

[Mattdude0]

I tried re-soldering the banana jacks on my Fluke 187 to stop the beeping and "Leads" message.  Did not help. Tried Isopropyl alcohol 99% no help either. Finally I tried MG Chemical Super contact cleaner with Polyphenyl ether. SUCESS at last. I bought the meter used on Ebay a few years ago. Started acting up today. It looks like someone put a tiny amount of grease to aid insertion.  Clean and happy now. Thanks to Mr. Carlson's Lab for recommending this for very difficult jobs!

[staze]

Just had this issue after replacing input sockets on a 87. Was super confused because all the sockets checked out.

Turns out, it was the rotary switch. Cleaned up the back carbon part, and the front contacts with some deoxit and lots of rotary back and forth, and finally got it to stop.

Give away was the unit was stuck thinking it was in AC no matter how I rotated the switch.

[m3vuv]

i fixed my 83v by removing the recpticle for the probes,putting it inside a sock and threw it in my washing machine with my washing,fixed it fine,that was about 5yrs ago,can remove the amps fuse to stop the beeps as well but then no amps function.