no headlights or anything+upgrade alt question

What I meant was you must tie the ammeter wires together to GET POWER. What I should have said was, you either need them tied together or else the ammeter hooked up

Hooking the alternator directly to the relay stud will ALSO render the ammeter useless, but that's what you need to do with that big alternator

If you look around, somewhere, there's an article on installing an inexpensive VOLTMETER inside your factory dash in place of the AMMETER, and it looks fairly stock.

I'll try to remember to look for it in the morning. I'm getting bleary eyed tonight.