Harbor Freight Leakdown tester, How does it work, or is mine just FUBAR? Options

[VaccaRabite]

So I took out the new HF leak tester to play with it.

I just put on the 3/4 bank of pistons/cylinder and torqued down the head. Get N03 to TDC. Pull the tester out of the box, and the leak gauge is showing about 40% leak before I even plug it in.

OKay, so I read the instructions, as this looks like it works differently from the last tester that I used.

Directions say to hook it up to the engine. Then depresurize the regulator until the leak dial hits zero. Then it should give me a percentage loss.

Huh? There has to be somehting else I do to show the percentage loss. I have not changed the tool from setting it to zero.

Tool 1, Zach 0
Someone that has used one of these things please pipe in. What am I not doing.

Zach

[biosurfer1]

I wouldn't trust anything important to a HF tool, but as far as simple/disposable tools, HF can't be beat.

Just last week I got a hammer, 3 paint brushes, 5 wire brushes, a mini screw driver set, clamps and bungie cords for less than $7. Couldnt beat that anywhere and I don't see how any of them could fail, and if they do, oh well.