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The ONLY job of a factory installed ammeter is to measure the current into or out of the battery, period. The output of the alternator will have no change on that.

If you improperly wire accessories (feed off the battery rather than the alternator) then you will have problems regardless of alternator, stock or upgraded.



Couldn't have said it better myself!

With no other changes, an upgraded alternator will actually HELP not burn up the charging system as it will lead to less discharge/charge cycles everytime you idle the car.

The problem comes in when you upgrade the alternator, add electrical loads, AND wire them improperly. Any continous loads while the car is running should always be wired to the alternator stud, not the battery terminal/starter relay. Wiring loads like fans, pump, etc here is what will burn up the wiring/ammeter quickly.

Do a search on this topic as it is beat to death all the time here.

FWIW, I have reproduction STOCK harnesses all over my car, factory ammeter, running with a 100 amp alternator with 20 amp electric fans and I get less current pull through the ammeter than I did with the original 60 amp alternator and mechanical fans. The fans pull right off the alternator stud so when the motor is running and fans are on, it doesn't pull any current through my ammeter (from battery).

Do your homework and read up on this. If you have the factory "roundback", you should be able to drop in the factory squareback (earlier 60 or later 78 amp) and use the same brackets. As said before, ground one of the field terminals to the case.

You can get as high as a 100 amp unit in the aftermarket squareback design (what I did) which would be the best you are going to do without wiring mods or bracket fabrication. I have the "Tuff Stuff" unit and so far, so good.