Yeah, not much of a service manual. I guess it's like most things these days where when it doesn't work they just replace the entire board (or meter...).
I haven't really made much progress, basically where I started. Volts range stays near zero, though does fluctuate a few digits now and then. Capacitance range reads anywhere from 2-10mF or OL - placing a capacitor on the test leads does *something* as the value settles to ~3mF, but this value makes no sense. Ohms settles usually around 2.5-3K, but it does some weird stuff at startup.
Temporarily replaced the 10R and 1K resistors. Shorting that PTC doesn't seem to change anything. I found what I think are some burned traces from the input socket to the 100K resistor and then from the 100K to the pad beside it - when held up to the light this part of the circuit board is traceable, and seeing no traces and some signs of damage there that was all that was logical, so I shorted those. Also removed the two red components, which I think might be NTC resistors, though not too sure. One of them reads ~6K with a pretty strong tempco, the other reads open (presumably dead, but I'm not sure). I tried to find some information on the markings on these, but they aren't very meaningful and I wasn't successful - no idea what they are or what their nominal values should be. The yellow component is I think a spark gap, and reads open as one would expect.
It's really a pain trying to figure out this input stage without a schematic. The best I found was a Fluke patent from 1993 that looked kinda similar, lol.
Had enough of prodding it for now, but would appreciate any suggestions. As it was sold advertised 'working' I'm going to try and get my money back...