You don't have to choose either having an ammeter or having a reliable electrical system. And no, I'm not talking about the hack-azz "solutions" offered at the (chevy-head) Mad Electric site. I much prefer the clean and technically correct ideas and components from R/T Engineering. They can rework stock ammeters to handle up to 70 amps efficiently, and they can convert stock ammeters into voltmeters (complete with a new gauge face that looks like factory equipment). They also sell a really good electronic instrument cluster voltage limiter. Their website's got a bunch of really good info on it, but you have to mouse around awhile to find it; the organisation isn't completely obvious. For example, I know there's a pic of one of their voltmeter conversions somewhere on the site, but I can't find it at the moment! Be sure to see this page. They actually have intelligent people who actually answer the phone (and who actually own Mopars, and who actually know what the he|| theyre talking about when it comes to Mopar charging systems...none of which can be said of the Mad electrical people), so if you get fed up trying to find what you want on the site, call them.
RTE informed me when I did call them that they have upgraded A-body ammeters for sale on the shelf, either with good used/cleaned-up faces or with newly-restored/reprinted faces. $75 or $99, respectively. I bought one of the good used ones and it is perfectly nice.
The internally-regulated alternator is a lot harder to hook up than if you get a Denso alternator from an '88-up Mopar, which works fine with the regular Mopar external voltage regulator and is much easier to wire into a Mopar. And the added bonus of doing it that way is that you aren't stuck replacing the alternator when the voltage regulator fails, as is the case with internally-regulated alternators.
