[mikep]

I tried wiring mine like that but it wouldnt work. my ammeter shows discharge but no charge. It cant possibly show a charging condition unless the field coil on the charging side of the ammeter is energized and the only way to do that is to run the alternator output through the ammeter and then to the battery. Thats certainly possible to do but if you are running the one wire from the alternator to the battery directly then theres no possible way it could energize the field coil to pull the needle to the charging side of the gauge as current flow in that direction would never occur in the gauge. If you hook up the old red wire that went to the alternator to the charging post on the alternator and jumper your wires like mentioned where they went into the old voltage regulator then your ammeter will work but you will be running your full charging current through your dash. I prefer a voltmeter instead so I dont have to do that. Ive seen more than one ammeter cause an electrical fire . The problem here being that the circuit and the gauge are sized for a 40 amp alternator that was original eqpt and if your'e under a heavy battery load with the one wire 140 amp unit there is the definite possibility of overloading the circuit and causing a fire. Even automotive electrical circuits should be sized 20% over the maximum expected generator capacity or load capacity.

[This message has been edited by mikep (edited May 17, 2002).]