Ammeter Question

[Nacho-RT74]

Didn't know why but I "jumped" this John's comment

Whenever the ammeter needle is towards the (+) side there is more current flowing through the ammeter than is being consumed by the car.

Like it or not there are occasions in the field when a dead battery has to be jumped and then there is a chance that the added current capacity of an oversized alternator will flow through the ammeter and overload the standard wiring and aged connections. The same can be said of added accessories.

yes, but that happens on both ways... power goes throught ammeter on C ( + ) or D (- ), so in both ways is potentially "dangerous"

the right way to feed back a dead battery is on a home charger outside the car. If you are not able then, charge with a direct wire from alt stud to batt and will keep safe the rest of installation.

If you have a powerfull alt, charge at iddle will be fine, even raise RPMs will get a quicker charge. If you have stock alt will be mandatory to increase RPMs and keep rest of stuff off on car

About added accesories. As far you hook accesories on alt side and you have a powerfull alt, ammeter won't even notice they are there. Problems began if:
-You hook accesories on batt side, no matter if stock or powerfull alt.
-You have a stock alt and is not able to feed everything.

Key is... find the way to keep more time as posible the amm needle on center area, no matter if sligthly below or above center line. Just keep the average load is enough. Of corse, if ammeter reads more time on Discharge area will mean you are getting emptied the batt, so in your mind need to make an average about how much time is on one side or another side, and how much high or low, to know your batt conditions.

THIS HAPPENS WITH AMMETER HOOKED OR NOT, just that ammeter will tell you what is happening on the right moment. ALL CARS HAVE DISCHARGE AT CERTAIN MOMENT so don't get a headache about that. Of course the newer the car, then more efficient the system is.