Questions on wiring Ignition/ supplying power to the fuse box

No it was not supplied by the alternator "exactly. Originally, because of the ammeter, and the need for it to be able to display current flow either from or to the battery (discharge vs charge) BOTH the battery an alternator wiring had to appear at the ammeter. It's all one wire. Here is an article about repairing bad bulkhead connections, but in this case what you are looking at is the simplified power distribution diagram.

Follow along in the diagram. This is a simplified diagram of pretty much original OEM. Bear in mind that the ammeter is basically a "piece of wire". So the RED wire shown starts out at the battery, goes to the starter relay "big stud" which is part of the relay contact, BUT ACTS AS A JUNCTION point. From there to the fuse link, then through the bulkhead connector an to the AMMETER, through it an out on the BLACK wire an to the WELDED SPLICE. This splice is up near the cluster a few inches from the ammeter. The BLACK continues on out through the bulkhead and to the alternator

LOOK AT the welded splice. This is simply a branch, tap, take off point. The battery and alternator ARE CONNECTED SIMPLY by the path just described.

The "WELDED SPLICE" taps off to the various points shown AND IS SUPPLIED by whichever is more positive........the battery....or the alternator. If the alternator is charging, and outputting more voltage than the battery, then the power comes from the alternator. If the alternator is not spinning fast enough, or the engine not running, then power comes from the battery.

Catalog

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The big question for you is, "are you going to retain the ammeter" because if you are, it's a fair amount of extra wiring with LARGE wire (needs to be upgrade from OEM) an the ammeter itself can give trouble with high output alternators. Frankly I would eliminate it an replace it with a voltmeter


This diagram is a huge help. I can delete the ammeter easily, and easily hook in a voltage meter, but I am not sure how I should be doing this to route it through the new wiring harness/fuse box. Right now the alternator is connected to the new fuse box, and this circuit is cut at the alternator. I had planned to run the ignition, lights, dome light, etc through the new harness as it has independent wires for each and hook them into the existing switch, but seeing as how it is all connected I wanted to plan out the circuits before I started wiring them together.

So if I run the ignition switch power wire from the new harness to J1-12R, run the ignition switch coil wire to J3-14BR (and hook other side through ballast resistor to coil) , run ignition switch start to S2-18Y and connect it to the relay, and run J2-16DBL to the needed items in the dash (tail lamps covered by another circuit now) - do you think that would work? I could put the voltage meter on the ignition switch power in this case.

Let me know what you think