Frustrating these electrical things can be, i can relate a few years back i occasionally got a dead short, no power in my 64 lincoln, charge the battery, still no power, wriggle auto shift in case inhibitor is not lining up, no! Another new battery, starts! hooray. Months later, no start, recheck everything, charge new battery, started. Eventually had auto electrician fixing top wireing and he bypassed the amp meter when he expeirenced the dead short! and never had the problem again. Would never have guessed it!

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Just to confuse things further, some cars (including my 70 Bronco) came originally with an alternator and in dash amp meter.  Never seen any reason to change it. 

As far as where to attach, I usually connect the Volvo-Penta voltmeter I've had kicking from car-to-car for years to the cigarette lighter, or the old stereo power (as I always wire the stereo directly to the battery).



I have to ask, why an ammeter? I have one in an '82 dodge truck, and It's useless. I can't tell whether or not I should turn the truck on to charge, whether I my battery is charging...it acts more like an RPM gauge, telling me if I'm revving the engine or not!

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People should not be afraid of their government, a government should be afraid of the people.

--Alan Moore

Just for clarification, many old gauge sets were equipped with Amp guages, when all cars had generators. As stated if using an alternator, switch to a volt meter. I happen to have an Amp gauge on my car,(it came that way) with a generator & had problems re battery charging. An auto electrical tech advised me that if using an amp gauge, it requires very heavy wiring. I replaced my wiring with 10 gauge & I suspect that would be the minimum... By the way as I understand it, voltage provides the push (potential), amperage measures the amount of power passing..

Paul

Same way as before. Thats was what I was referring to when I gave you info on hook up previously.

55Birdman  Hickory NC

ok... so, if I substitute a voltmeter for the ammeter, what's the best/simple way to go about that hook up?

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

An Ampere as it is affectionately known is what pushes volts thru a wire or what ever.  It is that pushing that is dangerous. I do know that 5 milliampere will kill you . That is equivalent to about 1/10th of a small christmas tree light. So, it isnt much. One doesn't need or want to know how fast volts are moving thru a point. We are more interested in how many volts pass thru that point. Thus volt gauges are what we car people use. Amperes are used more in industrial settings. Large generators,big machinery etc. I speed read at times and saw part of the info on the post. I do know we dont use amp gauges on our cars. It got by me as I was worrying I supppose about my hard starting problems I am having right now. I apologize if I misinformed anyone. Wasn't intentded.

55Birdman  Hickory NC

hmmm...

wonder what other useful gauge I could substitue for the hole where the ammeter goes...??

guess its back to the SW website to do some shopping!

thanks for the warnings

Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Mark, Most modern alternators put out well above 60 amps. The highest Ammeter that SW makes is 60 amps. Most of the ammeters in the kits only go to 30 amps...



As a side note, do you really want 30-60 amperes going through a gauge that is just inches above your legs? Not me... might be a rush for about a second... I believe I remember it only takes a 1/2 an amp to kill you if it travels through your heart. At any rate they put several amps through you in a Electric Chair which boils your Brain...



All the gruesomeness aside, I agree with what Paul said in the above post.




BOB

Can't answer that question, but a voltmeter gives you better info on charging. Just the fact that you burned it up when its brand new shows how an amp meter can screw up you car (re total it). Use a voltmeter and get rid of the amp meter.



Every car that I had an amp meter in had a charging problem When I got rid of the amp meters and installed a voltmeter all my problems went away.

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ