boy do I have a doozy for ya...

I have my ammeter bypassed it was shorting out around September, so I just spliced the two wires together.

There is a difference between a short circuit and a loose or open connection. If you spliced wires that is a fix for an open connection. Repairing insulation or separating a power wire that has contacted ground or another wire, is a way of fixing a short. A short is something conducting electricity in an undesired way to ground or another circuit.