What is an AMMETER? (73 DDS 340)

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KIII

KIII

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1973 Dart Sport 340, MSD, Okay, what is an Ammeter and why are the wires that go to it not hooked up? I dont know for sure that its not hooked up but the two (blk.and red) thickest wires inside my dash are not hooked up. The red has power. The stock dash has been replaced with a Duster dash(V is 1st. letter on dash) Nothing works on dash except the blinkers and 1 dash light. 2nd. question- On the tach there are 5 posts. 1 long(+) 1 short(MSD) 3 others with no fiber washers and they look like they have never been hooked up. Oh, I think I just figured it out. Are they assembly nuts?
 
The ammeter wiring (the great big red and the black with eyelet wire ends) must either be hooked together, or hooked to the ammeter. It should be obvious. I believe it's the far left gauge, labeled "alternator?" It will have two studs and should have nuts.

If you hook the wires up CORRECTLY the headlights or other accessory with move the needle to "D" for "discharge"
 
To answer your question "what is an ammeter"... it's a gauge used to measure current (in amperes or amps) and is in series with the load. It measures current flow either into or out of the battery thus it will show either a charge or discharge. On our old Mopars if this series path is opened up anywhere along the line all current stops flowing and you're dead in the water. Sometimes the ammeter itself opens up and a quick fix to get going again is to simply short the big fat red wire to the big fat black wire.
 
67Dart273 said:
The ammeter wiring (the great big red and the black with eyelet wire ends) must either be hooked together, or hooked to the ammeter. It should be obvious. I believe it's the far left gauge, labeled "alternator?" It will have two studs and should have nuts.

If you hook the wires up CORRECTLY the headlights or other accessory with move the needle to "D" for "discharge"
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Okay, its the alt. gauge on the dash? On the back of the gauge there are two posts. Which post is positive? Thnx.
 
IMO an amp meter is a useless POS. I get much more info from a volt gage and plan to get one in my stock dash on the fish when I bring it back. Currently have a volt gage which tells me if the alternator is actually working, how much my battery is down before I start, how much the starter draws it down, if I am over or under charging the battery, and how much things I turn on draw down the voltage.

As for how it works in our cars - I duno but these usually run the current coming or going to/from the battery across a reesistor and the gage is measuring the voltage drop across the resistor. That resistor is called a shunt. Never liked them.
 
airwoofer said:
The ammeters in most Mopars that we talk about on this site do not work that way. They have "the shunt" is really the entire meter movement. It's simply a piece of ?brass? across the terminals which create a magnetic field, and the needle is on a pivot with a magnet weight on the bottom.

I disagree with your opinion. The BEST world would have an ammeter AND a voltmeter. The vast majority of the pubic doesn't know WTF to do with 'em anyhow
Click to expand...
 
airwoofer said:
IMO an amp meter is a useless POS. I get much more info from a volt gage and plan to get one in my stock dash on the fish when I bring it back. Currently have a volt gage which tells me if the alternator is actually working, how much my battery is down before I start, how much the starter draws it down, if I am over or under charging the battery, and how much things I turn on draw down the voltage.

As for how it works in our cars - I duno but these usually run the current coming or going to/from the battery across a reesistor and the gage is measuring the voltage drop across the resistor. That resistor is called a shunt. Never liked them.
Click to expand...
Okay, I have a trio of aftermarket gauges hooked up and currently working(temp.,volts,oil pressure) So I dont need to hook up the alt. gauge on the dash, correct? My son and I just got the car a month ago and we are working out dash light problems(fixed) thats when I noticed the current question.
 
67Dart273 said:
The ammeters in most Mopars that we talk about on this site do not work that way. They have "the shunt" is really the entire meter movement. It's simply a piece of ?brass? across the terminals which create a magnetic field, and the needle is on a pivot with a magnet weight on the bottom.

I disagree with your opinion. The BEST world would have an ammeter AND a voltmeter. The vast majority of the pubic doesn't know WTF to do with 'em anyhow
Click to expand...
I think Im gonna hook up both. Does it matter which wires (blk n red) go one which post to the gauge?
 
Yes, but what will happen if you get it wrong, the gauge will simply move the wrong direction. You want it to move to the left when you turn on something like headlights
 
KIII said:
I think Im gonna hook up both. Does it matter which wires (blk n red) go one which post to the gauge?
Click to expand...
The circuit board on the back of the cluster will have "red" imprinted into the board next to the terminal that should have the red wire connected to it.
 
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