Bypassing the Amp Gauge

[MaximRecoil]

Thank You Maxim, I will change it to 1 fusible link with the wires bolted together and shrink tubed and taped. This should work and not be a lot of work.
Thanks again

Another thing you can do is leave the factory wiring (including the factory fusible link and bulkhead connections) as-is with the exception of two things:

1. Bypass the ammeter by placing both wires on one of the ammeter studs. This just makes for a convenient way of splicing them together; there are other acceptable ways of splicing them together if you prefer. Bypassing the ammeter isn't even important after doing the #2 step below, but you might as well, because the #2 step makes it so the ammeter needle will barely move / be inaccurate anyway.

2. Run a heavy wire from your alternator output stud to your starter relay stud. The size of the wire will depend on the size of your alternator, but for e.g. a 60 amp alternator, 8 gauge will be fine (and use a 3" long 12 gauge fusible link at the starter relay stud).

When you run the heavy wire from your alternator output stud to your starter relay stud, it makes bypassing the bulkhead connector unimportant, because no heavy current will be passing through there anymore due to the new 8 gauge wire acting as a shunt; i.e., electricity takes the path of least resistance, and the new 8 gauge wire will have much less resistance than the factory 12 gauge wires that go through the bulkhead connector twice. The only real heavy current through those factory 12 gauge wires is when the alternator is charging the battery, and that will now have a new path to take.

This is a lot less hassle than following the Mad Enterprises diagram, and it is more effective as well, considering his diagram shows the factory wire from the alternator being cut and rerouted to the starter relay stud (his diagram assumes a 10 gauge factory wire because it was drawn with '70s Dodge pickups in mind; your car probably has a 12 gauge wire instead, which is even worse).

In short, if the only thing you did was run an 8 gauge wire from your alternator stud to the starter relay stud, you would already have a better charging circuit than what is shown in that diagram, and at the same time you will have eliminated the heavy load from the factory wiring, thus eliminating the need to alter it.

[Canadian1968]

Your plugs in the lights and ignition,are they new? If do where did u pick em up?

Do you just mean the female terminal ends???  I picked up a case of 50 for $6 my local napa store !

[TexasGeneral]

1. Bypass the ammeter by placing both wires on one of the ammeter studs.

Have to disagree with this one... these studs can sometimes be shorted out internally to the gauge housing (creating another problem).. buy something or at least bolt the connections together and insulate..

[MaximRecoil]

1. Bypass the ammeter by placing both wires on one of the ammeter studs.

Have to disagree with this one... these studs can sometimes be shorted out internally to the gauge housing (creating another problem).. buy something or at least bolt the connections together and insulate..

There is no additional risk from placing both wires on one stud compared to leaving one wire on each stud as it came from the factory.

In my car I have them bolted together with a short machine screw, nut, and lock washer, and wrapped with self-amalgamating tape; but I only did it that way so that I'd have one less hassle when removing and reinstalling the instrument cluster.

[Pete in NH]

I agree with Nacho on keeping the ammeter if possible. As Nacho has pointed out the ammeter is really a battery current meter and tells you whether current is flowing into or out off the battery. I understand that with bigger high current alternators on newer cars, which were needed to keep up with increased electrical demands, ammeters became impractical and voltmeters were substituted. But, what  a voltmeter tells you is very different from an ammeter.

To use the old water/plumbing analogy- voltage is electrical force or pressure as pressure is to water. Current or amperes is the electrical equivanent of water flow or volume. You can have water pressure (electrical voltage) but no water flow (electrical current) in a pipe or (wire). Voltmeters make the assumption that if you have electrical pressure you will also have current flow which is not always true. If a battery has gone bad in a way to have a high internal resistance you can have very little current flow though it. A voltmeter would report everything is fine but, an ammeter would show no or little current flow.

I think with stock current range alternators and some wiring upgrades to get around the bulkhead connectors issues ammeters are just fine and I'll be keeping mine. Super big alternators are a whole other story though.


I agree with Maximum, that MAD Electric mod. is kind of technically correct electrically but the implementation is messy. I too would prefer to run new wiring of a heavier gauge and use only one wire rather that doubling up the existing wiring. The MAD Electric wiring as shown introduces extra connections which potentally reduce the reliability.

[Big Sugar]

Well if your gonna continue to run that old archaic Mopar alternator id bypass the ammeter completely but if you opt for a newer denso 60 amp or even better. Nippondenso current sensing alt then it may be ok to just leave it hooked up.  If you plan on upgrading your stereo or adding better lighting and installing that fancy chrome 100 amp alt. id suggest you ditch that amp meter and sort your wiring out before hand, you don't need ALL your current flowing thru the bulkhead connector and under your dash.
But if you feel attached to that old AMMETER. at least take it apart and make sure its in good shape.
Personally id do the Mad conversion and as for the Amp. Gauge convert it to a volt meter.  Redline gauge works does it


Ron

[Brass]

1. Bypass the ammeter by placing both wires on one of the ammeter studs.

Have to disagree with this one... these studs can sometimes be shorted out internally to the gauge housing (creating another problem).. buy something or at least bolt the connections together and insulate..

This is how I have mine.  Easy, and it seems to have worked really well.  The wires are meant to be connected to the gauge studs – just attach both to the same one.  That completes the circuit without current passing through the gauge.  Also, since the gauge is fixed and stable, I think it is safer than bolting them together.