Ammeter to voltmeter conversion

He is full of beans at least on some models, and so is Dan with his constant unrelenting criticism of MAD. The FACTS ARE that I have personally seen these fail. The photo at MAD of the melted ammeter face is hauntingly familiar in the years when guys put winches, driving lights, and snowplows on Dodge pickups through the 70's and 80's. My own 70RR was damaged--both the bulkhead terminals, and the ammeter.

The worst models are the newer stuff with plastic cluster housings.
1...The ammeter studs are not brazed or soldered to the shunt. They are "sorta" crimped. This means that the "sandwich" of the insulating washers---which can compress and come loose--sandwiched against the plastic housing through-hole---which can soften, compress, and come loose--then allows the loose stud to loosen connection between the terminal, the stud, and the ammeter shunt. From there it is a "snowball" Or maybe I should say "fireball."

2...The bulkhead connector failures are well documented on most models. The ONLY once not generally effected are the ?2? years or so which used the "through buss bars" through the bulkhead

3...Bulkhead terminals. These are essentially 1/4" flat spade "flag" terminals. As a former heating/ AC/ heat pump mechanic, I have fought these on a regular basis. "In my day" electric forced air furnaces used typically 5KW elements, which draw nominally 20-25A at 220-230V. That means that all of the interconnects in an electric furnace, which used to use these type terminals---see 25A on a very regular basis. THEY DO FAIL. I would guess that "in my day" I ran across perhaps 5 trouble calls per winter where an electric furnace had troubles of some sort surrounding the failure of these terminals. The point? THEY WERE NEVER DESIGNED to handle the output of an alternator