stock '66 ammeter with LS swap?

[littlevictories]

my searching has yielded the opinion this will not work.

shouldn't it be as easy as running the field wire (brown in my case) to the field wire on the alternator? (also brown, for extra cognitive resonance)

the thing worked pretty decent when i had the harness hacked up to run an 80 amp unit on the old sbc. I think back then I essentially just cut out the voltage regulator. The brown wire coming from the regulator was cut and butt spliced to the blue wire going to the alternator. IIRC, which is probably not the case…as few things are, lol.


Thanks,

Doug

[BR3W CITY]

I just put mine inline to another switched 12v source with low draw, sits mainly at 13.5 but moves a little under heavy current draw.


edit: thats for my voltmeter, which can be anywhere. Didn't notice you said ammeter, my bad.

[littlevictories]

looks like I might oughta have a mod move this to the electrical section
my idea is to run the stock gauges

[BR3W CITY]

Alright so this might not help, but I had to poke around in another thread and surmized a few things;

If its actually an AMMETER, meaning measuring amperage not voltage, then the actual requirement to hook it up much different.

Voltmeter can be pretty much anywhere in the 12v system (before another device that would alter the voltage), and shows the output of current from the charging system. 2-wires, no heavy gauges, no serious current just 12-14v and usually low amperage since you don't hook it up to a high draw circuit.

With an ammeter, to achieve correct readings, you need to wire directly inline of the charging sytem. This means your putting the FULL electrical load of the vehicle through that gauge. Technically you could wire it elsewhere, but then it wouldn't really be accurate. This is bad enough on an older truck with what, like maybe 40 amps? ....but then consider that the modern motor has a much higher requirement. Truck alternators can be over 160amps, 4x what the old gauge or wiring would have seen.

That much electrical load through wires that are too small can mean heat, or shorting. Either is not good, especially when run directly into the cab.

I'd think about popping over at the 60-66 section and seeing how it was originally wired, and finding out what kind of load it sees, to see if its even a good idea to run it. On top of the safety issue, putting that kind of amperage might just peg the old gauge out...making it pretty much useless.

That being said, hooking it to any 12v source will make it move, but it wouldn't really be correct or accurate.


More on the topic
http://www.autometer.com/tech_faq_an...px?sid=1&qid=5

[joeydurango]

I think using the stock ammeter would be asking for a fire... or at least a little snap, crackle, pop.

Not sure about the '66 aesthetically and so on, but in my '72 I'm using a '73+ voltmeter which should fit in the panel with minor mods. Shouldn't look too terrible, and will read properly.