Hey guys, I found out why my Stewart Warner amp meter doesn't work. The two leads are twisted back together loose under the dash. My question is which wire do I use to get the thing working correctly? Somebody told me to use the main power of the ignition. Another guy said to use any hot wire. Does the circuit have to be active? Or can I put it in line of a hot wire before the AC switch. By doing that will the amp gauge only work when the AC is on? Thanks, John

 

Ammeters work only in SERIES connections. You would put it in whatever circuit you want to check current on.

 

Thanks for the response. So you are saying that it is not necessary to have it in the main power line but it will be fine in something like the AC circuit? And that this will give a representative indication as to how the alternator on my 289 is functioning? Thanks, John

 

If you want to know how much power your A/C is drawing, hook the ammeter in series on the main power line. Then when your A/C turns on, you'll see a change in current.

 

John,

You really want the ammeter to measure the overall generator/alternator system performance, not an individual circuit. Here's a section of the 1956 wiring diagram. Yours should be very similar. Wire up your ammeter just as you see the instrument labeled "CHARGE" is wired. This method allows your ammeter to actually monitor the amount of current going into, or out of, your battery. Note that the current for the starter does NOT go through the ammeter since it's very, very large and you really don't need to meter to tell you that you're sucking a lot of juice out of the battery when you are actually starting the engine. You should use some 10 gage wires for your ammeter - pretty hefty stuff since your generator may produce 30 or more Amps on full charge.

 

Thanks George, a picture IS worth a 1000 words. John