Quote:
Originally Posted by VetteVet
You are probably seeing the discharge before the engine starts and the charge just after the alternator kicks in. the small amount of charge to the right of center would show more voltage on the alternator side or plus charge.
What happens when the truck's running and you turn on the lights and wipers? The gauge should flicker over to discharge and then return to just past center.
It's possible that the alternator feed wire is acting as the shunt and the gauge is able to read a difference between the alternator and battery voltages. The GM engineers calibrated the shunt wire by length, gauge, and resistance to correspond to the battery gauge and I would think that modifying either of those would affect the accuracy of the gauge.
In actuality the gauge has been replace by a voltmeter which is more accurate, gives better information, as well as being a lot easier to wire in and hookup.
My argument is not about how any body wires the battery gauge or whether it works or not. My argument is how the factory did it based on what I've read and seen including how my truck was set up.
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I understand what you are stating in terms of "factory correct". My truck is so far from that that its not even similar at this point. But what you stated is "cannot", and that is different from saying "its not factory correct".
My point was to have an ammeter that works in the cluster, which seems to be what I have with my highly modified system.
My battery gauge will read slightly left of the center line while cranking, and will stay there until the engine rpm's exceed 1400 and the alternator excites. Then it jumps all the way right and slowly comes back down to just slightly right of center. As I turn more stuff on, it moves further right, which in mind is showing that the alternator is increasing output, as it should. If it goes the other way, the draw is exceeding output, which would mean either the alternator can't keep up or is not working. I also have a voltmeter, but its only reading what it seems in the fuse block, which can drop quite a bit when things engage. I'm slowly adding in relays to keep that from happening.
FWIW, I have a lot of added electrical load with the AC system and the dual electric fans.