Has anyone done this AMP guage bypass?

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I didn't do exactly as the madelectrical pages suggest but the end result is similar.
Everything electric in my 67 works perfectly.
I had no desire to live with a dead gauge so I also converted my amp gauge to a volt gauge. No regrets
 
Sublime69 said:
That will work but the amp guage will not read correct because an amp guage measures flow. and to have it read correctly, all the voltage need to go through it.
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An AMP gage measures flow and all CURRENT needs to go through it.

Ammeters measure current flow (AMPS).

Volt meters measure VOLTAGE.

To bypass the Ammeter, just solder the black and red wires together and then shrink wrap and wrap them in electrical tape.
 
krazykuda said:
An AMP gage measures flow and all CURRENT needs to go through it.

Ammeters measure current flow (AMPS).

Volt meters measure VOLTAGE.

To bypass the Ammeter, just solder the black and red wires together and then shrink wrap and wrap them in electrical tape.
Click to expand...
Okay, but after you connet the black & red wire (amp) wire together, and install the new Volt gauge where do you route those wire too.
Redfish, I'm sure you know?
 
R4Sedan said:
Okay, but after you connet the black & red wire (amp) wire together, and install the new Volt gauge where do you route those wire too.
Redfish, I'm sure you know?
Click to expand...

i wired my new volt gauge to a switched hot in my fuse box and to a ground and has been working flawlessly for 6 months now.
 
The original amp gauge wires are cinnected together and routed nowhere else. The volt gauge can get its 12 V + from the switched (dark blue with white tracer ) wire that powers the instrument panel.
 
73AbodEE said:
i wired my new volt gauge to a switched hot in my fuse box and to a ground and has been working flawlessly for 6 months now.
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You take the hot wire from were the ammeter used to be and hook that up to the + side of the voltmeter and then the - side of the voltmeter to a ground.
 
krazykuda said:
You take the hot wire from were the ammeter used to be and hook that up to the + side of the voltmeter and then the - side of the voltmeter to a ground.
Click to expand...

Sorry but those amp gauge wires are hot at all times. Connecting a volt gauge there would create a constant draw thus killing the battery...
Unless you add a relay to control the ground path of the volt gauge.
 
I just blew my link last night on the highway on my way home from work. What a pain in the *** that was.When doing this swap do you leave the factory wires on the Alt & add the new wire to it or remove them & just use the new wire to the starter relay? Will I have to modify anything to use lights & so on? Where did you find a supplier for the fuseable link wire & were they a place you could walk in rather than have to have it shipped? Thanks in advance!
 
This was one of the first things I did to my Dart.
I also drilled the firewall connector and ran heavier gauge wire to the fuse block and I ran a relay for the headlights.
And I replaced the mechanical voltage reg with a electronic one that looks exactly like the original.
 
Sedanman said:
I just blew my link last night on the highway on my way home from work. What a pain in the *** that was.When doing this swap do you leave the factory wires on the Alt & add the new wire to it or remove them & just use the new wire to the starter relay? Will I have to modify anything to use lights & so on? Where did you find a supplier for the fuseable link wire & were they a place you could walk in rather than have to have it shipped? Thanks in advance!
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In your case dont do anything more than find what caused the fusible link to burn open. If you start changing a lot of stuff now you may create new problems before finding the 1st one.
The wires on the amp gauge have ring terminals on large wires . They are attached to the gauge posts with toohed washers and hex nuts.
If you want to go ahead and put both wires together on 1 of the gauge studs to take that gauge out of the trouble shooting, that's fine.
Any part store will have fusible links. Theirs wont have the terminals on the ends like your factory link has. You would need to order from Year One to get exact replacement link.
 
this is exactly how i did mine. added a volt gauge. the fusible links are 5 bucks at oriellys. you MUST use a them, or you run the risk of burning the car to the ground. i noticed on the last page someone deleted them and ran the alt field wires through the starter ??? i would never do that. PLEASE DONT DELETE THE FUSIBLE LINKS they are there for a reason. im going on 7 months now without a single problem, working flawlessly
 

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Sedanman said:
I just blew my link last night on the highway
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RedFish said:
In your case dont do anything more than find what caused the fusible link to burn open. If you start changing a lot of stuff now you may create new problems before finding the 1st one.
The wires on the amp gauge have ring terminals on large wires . They are attached to the gauge posts with toohed washers and hex nuts.
If you want to go ahead and put both wires together on 1 of the gauge studs to take that gauge out of the trouble shooting, that's fine.
Any part store will have fusible links. Theirs wont have the terminals on the ends like your factory link has. You would need to order from Year One to get exact replacement link.
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In a case like this I agree with Red completely. Find the SHORT that caused the problem FIRST and fix it, THEN if you want to improve things, go at it.

It also might be that the fuse link blew because of a poor connection right where the link connects to the bulkhead. Read the MAD article, and check out the problem areas they mention

The main problems (look at the diagram 73AbodEE posted above) are:

Too small wire in the charging line for larger alternators and heavy added loads

Poor connections in the bulkhead connector

Poor connections and problems with the ammeter

The "welded splice" CAN fail

WHAT YOU ARE DOING with the "simple" bypass in the MAD article, is you are effectively putting the alternator ORIGINAL charge wire (black, through the bulkhead) and the orginal battery feed (red, through the bulkhead) in PARALLEL, which has instandly DOUBLED the size of the wire feeding power INTO the interior of the car, while at the same time, the BATTERY charging current no longer has to flow through that wiring because of the bypass.

The whole article is here:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

More from the same place:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electrical-tech.shtml

Red mentioned an ammeter to voltmeter conversion earlier. I've done the same, here's a thread on that:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=119480&highlight=ammeter+conversion
 
It turns out that my alternator fried it by sending too much voltage when I hit the gas & blew it. I have never heard a fuseable link explode before. It was like someone threw a firecracker under my car or a backfire & all power was gone.I would still like to do this swap & also update the charging system. I do have a newer electronic regulator harness & was thinking of splicing that in in place of the old style regulator. I also had a newer style alt in stock with dual feeds. Is there any advantage to using the dual feed alt & newer style reg?
 
I have a new set of AutoMeter guages but misplaced the directions for the volt meter. There is an open male spade terminal in the back side of my fuse box. Would I get the correct volt reading from this terminal? If I do the bypassing of the amp guage will I have to run relays for the headlights & if so why?
 
You can probably get voltmeter power from the fusebox, as long as the harness is otherwise "fixed." You want switched power, so the voltmeter does not operate at all times.


Headlight relays are a somewhat separate but related issue.

They are a separate circuit, but ESPECIALLY if you put in headlights using more power, the original wiring size was marginal, and the bulkhead connector, just like in the case of the charging/ battery feed, has deteriorated over time and can be a problem. By installing relays IN THE ENGINE BAY and powering the relays off something such as the starter relay stud AND after you perform the ammeter bypass, you've accomplished several things:

1 Relieved the strain on the bulkhead as the charging current now goes directly to the battery, AND you now have two wires in parallel feeding power to the interior

2 For the headlights, you've relieved strain on the wiring, headlight, and dimmer switch, as now they will only be powering relay coils instead of running the headlights directly

EVEN IF you do not increase the engine bay harness wire size to the headlights, you will have SHORTENED the harness length by a considerable amount, thus reducing voltage drop.
 
Sedanman said:
It turns out that my alternator fried it by sending too much voltage when I hit the gas & blew it. I have never heard a fuseable link explode before. It was like someone threw a firecracker under my car or a backfire & all power was gone.I would still like to do this swap & also update the charging system. I do have a newer electronic regulator harness & was thinking of splicing that in in place of the old style regulator. I also had a newer style alt in stock with dual feeds. Is there any advantage to using the dual feed alt & newer style reg?
Click to expand...

If you have a so called "square back" alternator, these are better than the older "round back" so far as low RPM performance. The only real advantage to the newer regulators is that they are more plentiful. That is, you CAN get good quality 69/ earlier regulators, it's just getting more difficult

Once you "get into" this, post back, and we'll run you through some checks to be sure everything is OK. It's important for example, that the dark blue "ignition run" circuit is in good shape for several reasons.
 
The regulator I have now is a solid state updated 1 they sell instead of the old point gap style. Is there a thread on how to wire/install relays for the headlight circuit? Where would I get the relays,autozone etc? The rest of my wiring is/seems fine & ran when I left the alt disconnected. It was a CA car until I bought it but everything rubber had turned into hard plastic. I was lucky & had a spare harness that I could rob the link from. This is my daily driver so I need it as reliable as possible. Thanks for the great info!
 
krazykuda said:
An AMP gage measures flow and all CURRENT needs to go through it.

Ammeters measure current flow (AMPS).

Volt meters measure VOLTAGE.

To bypass the Ammeter, just solder the black and red wires together and then shrink wrap and wrap them in electrical tape.
Click to expand...

Black and red join them,that always got me why are they black and red,all logic tells me if ya join them ca bang,why are they not booth red?
 
Snake said:
Black and red join them,that always got me why are they black and red,all logic tells me if ya join them ca bang,why are they not booth red?
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One is line in other is line out. If they wer both red you wouldn't know which went to which terminal on the gauge.
Today there are so many wires in cars that red with a black tracer or something like that would be likely be used. Where their are only 2 wires...
 
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