Hey guys its been a while. I just got the gauges working in my Econoline and now would like to get some more working in the ol plymouth. Did a 12V conversion a few years ago. I have my pressure and temp guages working. How do i wire up my AMP gauge???? Yes i do know the difference between Volts and AMPS. Thanks Matt
If it has a loop, just run the wire from the the alt. through the loop and then to the battery plus + side or to where it goes to the starter sol.If it has 2 post ,run the wire there to one post and out on the other post. Hope this helps
The amp gauge needs to see full amperage from the alternator so the wire runs from alt. thru amp gauge to the battery or starter post. Add no wires between the amp gauge and alt that draw current or the guage will not show correct amperage. The gauge should have two posts, one in, one out. If it shows negative when it should be positive, reverse the wires. Engine running and headlights on, should show a slight positive amp if the alt. is working correctly. With no load other then engine running, it should show no load or right in the middle. Ignition systems draw very little power at idle. Joe Joe
After doing some more research i may leave it unhooked. Sounds like they have a tendency to get hot or catch fire. I really only have it for looks. Thanks matt
This is for a Ford generator but it applies to most any charging system. For an ammeter to give you your needed information, all of the feeds need to come from the left side of the ammeter between the VR and the ammeter so that it will show a discharge if something is wrong. Think of an ammeter as a flow meter for the charging system. Wired correctly it shows the amount of amps as well as the direction that they are flowing. If the feeds for the lights and other power feeds are taken from other places in the car without going through the ammeter first the ammeter won't be able to sense it and show a discharge. To me that is a very important part of an ammeter. If it's wired correctly it will show a slight discharge when the key is on. Pull out the lights and it will show a higher discharge. Start it up, watch it show a heavy charge and watch as the charge drops as the battery is replenished. Put a fuseable link in the wire as close as possible to the battery to protect the wire and the ammeter in case of a short.
Yeah, good idea. My first thought was, "and you want to risk a fire because?" Volt gauge is much safer. Years ago I was driving my Morris Minor out in the country to deliver a motorcycle engine. I had the glove box doors off because I was plating them. I had a new Car Craft magazine in the glove box in front of me, and would glance at the cover every few minutes, anticipating reading it. I noticed the page had turned, and thought, how can that be, and where is the cover? Then noticed this little black line sweeping across the front of the book. One page at a time, they were burning! Amp gauge caused a fire ,which picked up quickly. I had no wrenches on me to disconnect the battery, and had to watch as my entire electrical system ate itself, stereo and all. (That was a long time ago, and that's how we learn to keep wrenches, and a battery master disconnect, on our vehicles) I've asked and asked aviation engineers why the hell they still use amp gauges in aircraft, and I basically got the "because we always have" answer. My ME was killed a couple of years ago due to a ****pit filling with smoke from an electrical fire. I'd bet many aircraft fatalities would be prevented if the A-holes would just switch to voltmeters.
Best bet is ford amp that runs thru coils 46 47 48 are some.# 8 wire and limit alt output with maxi fuse. Volt meter tells nothing other than battery condition and if alt is working.Never knew may cars that burned up when protected with maxi fuse or fuse link .I have blown 80 amp fuse a couple of times due to my own fault ,shorting with wrench etc. Any unfused wire can create a problem. Do you draw more than 80 amp in a hotrod ,I dont.
The output wire in seires with battery for amp gauge. I had a 52chevy 6 volts with and amp gauge,didn,t realy tell nothing.When setting up a regulator its set with voltage to battery.If you were charging small amount over a long trip could kill battery,so voltmeter is a better tool.
ANY un-protected (fuzed) item in your electrical system can short and cause a fire. ANY of them - even a voltmeter. Voltmeters are not necessarily inherently safer and only indicate the charge condition of the battery whereas ammeters instantaneously show you the state of your electrical circuit overall. If you do not run a maxi-fuse on your ammeter line in today's day and age, you're just silly. The best of both worlds would be a voltmeter and an ammeter.
Another topic that is as divisive as politics or religion. I ***ume you want to keep the stock ammeter in your car. It likely isn't designed to read over 30 amps and, if you have converted to an alternator, most of them will put out at least 60 amps and ruin your ammeter.
Build yourself a VAMETER. A simple circuit would do exactly that. The voltmeter part is simple, the ammeter takes the the voltage (and polarity) across a sense resistor and shows the current pull.
That is because anyone that has had a short in the system without a fuseable link or a maxi fuse are always quick to jump to the conclusion that the short was caused by the ammeter. I am probably the only one that has had that wire get hot and melt the insulation killing the engine in traffic and did not blame the ammeter. When I checked out what really happened it was easy to tell that the ammeter was actually the victim of a shorted alternator and played no part in the short other than it was in the path of the excessive amperage. The insulation only melts where the wire is carrying too much current. If the short is 1/2 way along the wire the insulation wont melt in the part that is not carrying the excessive load. You can trace it right to the source of the short. In my case, it melted from the battery up into the cabin to the ammeter and on out the other side of the ammeter up to the back of the alternator. The alternator showed signs of excessive heat. If the short was at the ammeter the melting insulation would have stopped right there. It did not. The shorted alternator burnt up my ammeter. It was scary as hell I grant you that but even with a volt meter that wire would have melted inside the harness. The only difference is that it would not melt inside the cabin. Since that day I use a fusable link in that wire at the battery or solenoid. Where ever that heavy gauge wire ends. A short big enough to melt the insulation will immediately blow the fuse or the link. I even put one on my 12V generator to protect the wire in case of a short. Over Kill? Probably but I will always use one on an alternator no matter which type of gauge that I use. I understand that this will not convince anyone one way or the other but it might convince someone to add a fuseable link even with a voltmeter that could be under the wrong impression from these posts that they are perfectly safe with the voltmeter. That is not a fact.
If you use a 14 ga wire when you should have used 12-10 ga ,you are asking for trouble.Use the RIGHT ga. wire for the job,with GOOD connections, no problem.
Oh ****. I'm planning on using a GM 1 wire alternator in my '51 F1 and wanted to use the stock ammeter with the inductive loop. Any way to do this? Thanks to the OP for posting this thread.
We service a number of ammeters in our shop and find that proper servicing leaves them perfectly safe if installed properly. In general, ammeters get a bad wrap but are a superior gauge. "You can have voltage without amperage, but you cannot have amperage without voltage." As long as you have a proper wiring harness you shouldn't have any problems.
i did this post on another site for converting an amp gauge to a volt gauge. not sure if this word work with your gauge set, i just did it... when i re-wire my truck with a EZ Wire harness and added all the accessories and a lot of loads, i decided not to use the amp meter in the gauge cluster. rather than leave it dead, i converted it to a volt gauge. i didn't take any pics of the conversion, but this is how it turned out. i used a $10 autozone off the shelf 2'' volt gauge. i gutted the gauge down to the bare essentials, no case and no face plate. i gutted the stock amp meter down to the bare essentials too. no guts, just the back and face plate. it was a close fit width wise, 2 screws held the face plate on the volt gauge. hammered a couple of dimples out of the amp gauge face plate and drill 2 holes to match the volt gauge and screwed it on. the needle didn't match the other gauges so i whacked it off and used a little epoxy to attach the old needle to the new gauge. the studs on back of both gauges were the same. i carefully reused the old and new insulators to make sure nothing would short out. calibration: hooked it up to a fully charged battery and bent the needle to match the center dot on the old face. installed it. usually it run positive of the center dot; charging at 14 volts. ignition off it goes to the left old temp gauge and new volt meter. new gauge sticks out 1/16'' past, but who cares... gauge back with old and new insulators. new gauge has threaded studs. new face plate ($9) and a little crinkle paint from a spray bomb and this is the finished product. it's an amazing transformation from old to new. all new bulbs a little washing and a little paint and it looks better than new. i have my gauges out to replace the speedo, it was hanging at 30 and would work again after 45 (and a bump in the road) cl***ic parts has new speedos for $99, cheaper than i could get it worked on.
Shunt a resistor across the terminals. This will reduce the actual current going to the ammeter. You will have to play with the value and wattage. Furd Econolines in the late 60's and 70's used an ammeter with shunts across it. The meter read D...C, so there was no real way of knowing what rate the battery was getting charged (or discharged) at, but at least told you something was going on.
Good idea! I have an old decade resistor box I can use to dial it in, then wire in the correct value. One less thing to be concerned with now.
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