ammeter blowing fuses/ getting hot
Looks like you found at least one short in your other thread begun on Saturday.
Here's what's going on:
The ammeter is a part of the battery power feed. There are two different wire colors used to insure the ammeter reads the correct direction.
When the wires are connected, black is hot, just like the red is hot.
As you discovered, the black wire is connected to the MAIN JUNCTION. This is a WELDED SPLICE.
Everything connected to the welded splice is hot.
The main junction joins the two power supplies (batery and alternator) to the the main feeds as shown in the drawing below.
Not everything is fed through the fusebox.
With the key off, there should still be power at the fuses for the dome light, brake lights, tailights. There should also be power for the headlights (no fuse - circuit breaker inside the headlight switch).
The fusible link is a last ditch protection measure against battery shorting to ground.
One more big clue and caution.
The ammeter shows current flowing in or out of the battery. In other words battery charging and discharging.
Its another useful tool.
Its calibrated roughly 40 amps to 40 amps.
Anything close to 40 amps either way is DANGER DANGER
Looks like you found at least one short in your other thread begun on Saturday.
Here's what's going on:
The ammeter is a part of the battery power feed. There are two different wire colors used to insure the ammeter reads the correct direction.
When the wires are connected, black is hot, just like the red is hot.
As you discovered, the black wire is connected to the MAIN JUNCTION. This is a WELDED SPLICE.
Everything connected to the welded splice is hot.
The main junction joins the two power supplies (batery and alternator) to the the main feeds as shown in the drawing below.
Not everything is fed through the fusebox.
With the key off, there should still be power at the fuses for the dome light, brake lights, tailights. There should also be power for the headlights (no fuse - circuit breaker inside the headlight switch).
The fusible link is a last ditch protection measure against battery shorting to ground.
One more big clue and caution.
The ammeter shows current flowing in or out of the battery. In other words battery charging and discharging.
Its another useful tool.
Its calibrated roughly 40 amps to 40 amps.
Anything close to 40 amps either way is DANGER DANGER
