Wiring 30a ammeter

I've opted not to re-fit my ammeter in my rebuild, and have fitted a voltmeter, instead. It's a lot easier to wire in (not needing any heavy cable to/from it) and I figure that if it's around 13.8V, it's charging OK. If it's at 12V, it isn't. and if it's at 10V, then I'm in the sh1t!

rob1miles said:

I have to fess up here; I bought an artificial horizon off a Lincoln or Mozzi at an auto jumble

Click to expand...

I've got one of these things to stick on the dash and play around with. Probably junk, but might be fun. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sumex-Bl...996802&hash=item3cf2df1aac:g:fywAAOSwe-FU2y70

But a proper artificial horizon....that's neat!

That’s pretty wouldn’t fit my colour scheme though, lots don’t like the ammeter and prefer the voltmeter but it was good enough to get the Apollo 13 crew back, but have you room for both

I hope that reading is with the engine off Steve.

ha yes not started it yet, I’ll give it a go tomorrow see what it looks like under load

I used to have one on mine...at first I fitted a 30 amp....used to go odd the scale...not that that matters really....normally only after a cold start where lots it drawn from the batt.

Later on I fitted a 50amp...that was fine.

Then I realized I didn't really need an amp meter and in fact it was a fire risk...with long wires carrying heavy currents....so I binned the idea....I just have a smiths voltmeter now....simple....and it tells me all I need to know.

My line up all smiths...a clock...a voltmeter and a mechanical oil pressure gauge.

Mines just wired in to the lighting circuit so moves when ignition on and when lights on , start engine and needles still shows the current drawn , so not drawing as much as if on starter circuit
The clock sounds good I’ll have to look out for one

Had a trip out the other week up Northumberland just North of Newcastle on A1, head lights on, blower on , wipers on, then some quite impressive sparking coming from ammeter, found a B road to pull off and took a little while to register the cause , so switched off what I could and tried to undo the retaining nuts which were too hot to touch. The inside was glowing and it wasn’t the bulb!
2nd prob and lesson learned didn’t pack a suitable toolkit only think I could find was a old pair of pincers which managed to undo the battery clamp, when it cooled a bit pulled it out of dash and just left hanging as below


Not looked at it till now, I suspect the cause was the nuts were not nipped up enough , got hot, melted the nylon insulators on the C clamp , which then shorted onto the metal dash
It still works and a couple of lessons learned

Ditch it, you want to get rid of every high current terminal you can, each one is a fire waiting to happen. When they are not on fire they are just hot and sapping volts. Its best to solder all the high current terminals - a faff but the lights get noticabley brighter and you get a lot less electrical gremlins.

That the very reason I removed my amp meter and fitted a volt meter....gives similar info in a much safer way...you were lucky there was not a fire....or buggered your alternator.

...Or melted the insulation off a significant portion of your wiring loom.

Only one gauge a series realy needs, a good coolant temperature gauge. That and and the three sensors that all series have which if taken notice of can result in early detection of problems.[ easy enough in a series as there is little if any insulation.]
They are nose, ears and arse. Nose to detect strange different smells, ears for odd sounds and arse for vibrations.

I have found an oil pressure gauge very handy, I had a rad hose go in traffic and the best indication that something was wrong was the oil pressure drop. The temp was up but I was in traffic but the oil dropped lower than it ever had so I pulled over and found I had almost no water. Temp gauge (now dry) was still reading in range. It must have gone right up before dropping back but I must have missed that.