Ammeter

[Sid Helms]

I have a 88 GW, 360 V-8. Can someone tell me how to wire an ammeter gauge that's in a 3 gauge panel I mounted? thanks for any help.

Sid

[bvibert]

Is it a shunt type gauge or one that reads current directly? Didn't the gauge come with instructions?

If it reads the current directly be aware that all of the current from your alternator will be routed through your truck. This has cause many of the earlier FSJs that came factory equiped with ammeters to burn up when the gauge fails or the the connections become faulty. To wire up this type you would need to install the gauge in series with whatever load you are trying to trying to measure. In the case of the early FSJs they measured the current flow between the battery and the alternator. This would mean that you would have to run a heavy wire from the alt to one side of the gauge and then another heavy wire from the other side of the gauge back to the battery. Some sort of fuse protection would be recomended...

With a shunt type you install a shunt resister in series with the load and then run much smaller wires from either side of the shunt to the gauge. With this type the current flow stays in the short path from the alt to the battery. The ammeter basically just reads the voltage drop across the known low resistance of the shunt.

I'm sure there is somethings I left out, but I hope this helps, or makes any sense at least smile.gif