> Yeah,thanks its' the aftermarket ammeter, diagram shows
>lead from fusebox to neg side of meter, pos side of meter to
>starter pos and I can smell the coffee brewin'--gettin' a
>lot of silly guy responses about this, is this normal?

When you say 'coffe brewing' do you mean this is when the meter burns up? If so, the only other thing I can think of is the charging system is sourcing more current than the meter can handle. Do you have a high output alternator? Could also be a bad regulator sticking full open. Any problems with the battery charging/overcharging? Yes this topic seems to have generated several tangents not directly related to your question.

>Also somebody says something about a shunt across the terminals??
>Doesn't seem like that would work unless maybe the ammeter
>has 0 resistance, which I doubt. Is that a shunt a shunt or
>a resistor? And then it wouldn't read accurate on amps,
>maybe just a cheapo ammeter?

All this talk of a shunt is off topic. Your ammeter has one inside it. If you needed an external shunt then one would have been included and mentioned in the instructions. In the above post that mentions a precision shunt that you put a voltmeter across-- that IS an ammeter. It is exactly what is inside every ammeter I've used. An ameter is a precision low resistance load with a voltmeter in parallel to it. Then the voltmeter face is calibrated to read amps.

What is the max reading on the meter? Does the needle go to full deflection before it smokes? If so it's another indication that there's just more current in the system than the meter can handle.

Good luck.

 

ok, that sounds better, that's how i had mine, and it worked great for 4 years... till it got hot enough to melt the insulation off of the back and short out under the dash... ( 11 pm on a sunday night..) all most burnt up me truck.. after i disconnected it, a problem with my cd deck cutting out every now and then was cured..
i wish i could find one that i could trust... i just can't bring myself to install another one like that...

 

Autometer is about as good as you can get!!

 

>ok, that sounds better, that's how i had mine, and it
>worked great for 4 years... till it got hot enough to melt
>the insulation off of the back and short out under the
>dash... ( 11 pm on a sunday night..) all most burnt up me
>truck.. after i disconnected it, a problem with my cd
>deck cutting out every now and then was cured..
>i wish i could find one that i could trust... i just can't
>bring myself to install another one like that...

That is exactly the problem with these ammeters. For the aftermarket ones to work you have to run all the current up into the dash and if something goes wrong it can cause an electrical fire. As you said it took 4 years before you had a problem. Well heat and vibration add up over time and cause this. Think about this, Ford doesn't run all the current into the cab for thier ammeters. They use an external shunt as has been mentioned so many times above. Then they can just run a SMALL current into the dash to run the meter.

If you're leary of reconnecting another ammeter then pull it and it's wiring out and install a voltmeter. Low current and it really does give you a better idea what's going on. You can even wire it to an existing 12V source in the cab already and then to ground.

 

LxMan1 An after market ampmeter is easy to install. First, you remove all of the leads off of the battery side of the starer solenoid except for the battery cable. Put the eyelets on a bolt along with a wire running to one side of the ampmeter. Then put the battery cable and the wire coming from the other side of the ampmeter on the starter solenoid. Make sure that the bolted together wires are not touching any metal, then turn on the headlights and make sure that the meter goes to the neg side. (If not, reverse the wires on the gauge). Then thoroughly tape up the bolted up wires and it will work fine. I have done this on several vehicles and have never had a problem.
NOTE This applies to aftermarket guages only. Do Not try this on the factory gauge, it only reads a percentage and does not have full current running

After doing a search on ammeter installation before asking this question that has been asked so many times before I just have to say you have the most descripitive easy to understand answer.
Thanks

 

If you don't trust teh ammeters, use a volt meter, will give you the same results. Personally I like the voltmeter better, ford ammeters are notoriously "still", I don't think I've ever had one that you could actually tell was charging

 

I just went with the 2" triple guage set-up:water temp,volts and oil pressure.I left the amp guage alone.

 

Mine does, but I fixed it. Before that, the only one I ever saw work was in the movie "Close Encounters". And that was a movie trick.

 

WOW, another 3 year old thread brought to life

Doesn't anyone read the dates anymore ? *HUGE GRIN*

There has to be at least 40 threads within the last year with the same info posted on this thread today