Amp gauge not working now
My amp gauge now is not working after I did a parallel 8 gauge wire from the alternator to the started relay stud. I would have thought that it would still work since it is getting voltage through it.
I guess my question is why it did not work? I will probably just disconnect it and splice the wires together. I drove the car and noticed it was not working, so I got concerned that the battery was not charging. After my drive I checked the battery and it had 12.5 volt in it, so it was being charged.
You made what amounts to a parallel path. You can probably just leave it alone
If you learn how shunts work, that is how tiny meters measure large current. You take a sensitive meter, would would be "exploded" by a few microamps or milliamps, and put it in parallel with a large conductor. The conductor carries a majority of the load and it is carefully calibrated to allow "just the right" amount of current through the meter to operate.
If your ammeter was less amps full scale, say, 1 or 10 instead of 30-40A, and the shunt was smaller, say no 12 instead of "whatever," the ammeter would still show some activity
In fact, in the early 70's, when Ma FINALLY improved the ammeter situation with the "big boats" they did just THAT. Used a charge wire with no "full current" ammeter. Then used a small scale, sensitive meter, and hooked the meter leads up to the big wire "in the harness" so that the harness wire ITSELF made the meter shunt
GM, Ford, Chrysler, all did this same deal
