Ammeter to volt meter conversion

In my other wiring post, I have my problem traced to a recurring ammeter problem so I think I need to eliminate the problem. Has anyone used the amp to volt conversion kit from Year One? Is there a better/cheaper one anyone else sells? I am terrible doing searches on past threads here and I'm sure there have been several discussion. Anyone have a link? Thanks.

Fastmark-When I had my cluster restored, I had them put in a volt meter and it's a solid state. The only thing I did was take the wires going it, cut the ends, soldered a splice to the red and black, then heat shrink them.

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/6157320/site_id/1#import

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/797170/1.html

the 2 old threads about using a new volt meter and making it look like it should fit in the old dash.

Where did you gets the parts?

This one is cheap and easy to install.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-Waterpr...r-/122025200632

Thx for the link, been looking for something small enough to mount in the ashtray

This what I use...that is daytona beach sand on the floor mat. Came from camping world, it is how I monitor my battery.

any pics of this installed in the dash?

I could not find one to fit in my dash real well. So I put it right where my ashtray was. I dont smoke so it was no big deal to me. Ron

I had the place do it where I sent my cluster into.

I sent my cluster to InstrumentSpecialties. They did the volt meter conversion as part as the resto. I retained the amp meter face however it works as the voltmeter.

EXACTLY what I did

I made my own gauge by gutting a small 2" voltmeter and adapting it to my stock Ammeter....even had a custom face decal made up

^^^ trick! excellent

Wow. That's nice. I see a market for that. Let's look at the back side. What volt gauge did you use?

Thanks! I used an Autogauge 2356. Had the decal made up by Whitegauges.net

See this thread on DC.com

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,108698.0.html

I can see adding a volt meter, but don't get why people replace an ammeter with a volt meter. To me, the ammeter is the quickest way to spot a problem with the charging system, or for visualizing which systems, when turned on, are causing a current draw that the charging system can't satisfy...

hi all, done this mod to my aussie valiant, not real hard to do, like others have said I used a cheep sunpro I think gauge and adapted it to the cluster and had a decal made to suit, heres a link.
http://www.hemi6pack.com/forum/showthrea...5708#post835708

40 year old wires, loose and cooroded connections, added electrical demand from today's modern electronic ignitions, electric fuel pumps, electric fans, GPS devices plugged into power outlets, aftermarket stereo systems with amps, etc and upgraded alternators putting out double the original amperage....

That's why

Lots of cars have suffered electrical fires from under the dash. Even a bone stock car, if you drained the battery and jump it, is now pushing 65 amps through a tiny 10 ga wire that passes through the firewall twice.

Bone stock restored car with old points ignition, and fresh clean wire harnesses and good connectors and the stock alternator, then you can go ahead and keep your amp gauge.

Oh, and since it takes the voltage regulator and alternator a second to recover from a large amp draw, and most likely not recover at all from idle, you can see the same information on your voktgage that the amp gauge was telling you. >12? That's the same as slightly over 0 on amp gauge. 12 is 0 and <12 is discharge.

40+ amp load from electric fan kicking on, and a sustained 30 amp draw, at idle you can watch the bolts drop to 10. That's a huge discharge. Blip the throttle to bring RPM up and you can see the bolts come back up, so you know everything is working

Your right as the ammeter does tell just what the charging system is doing very easily but an ammeter has to be hooked in series (or a shunt type) and that means all the current the car uses has to go through the ammeter for it to tell you everything. So its easier on our older muscle cars to just eliminate the ammeter and run new proper size wire to bypass it and handle the load of the electrical system if you add things to the car. Then a voltmeter can be hooked anywhere you can get a good 12 volts key on reading and it hooks in paralell so all the current does not have to go through the voltmeter gauge. Ron

Do you realize that a shunt type does not have all the current run thru the ammeter.

Easiest thing is to maintain your electrical system. Because poor maintenance there shows up FIRST at the ammeter. Dim headlights, slow wipers, etc

Ah thats why they are a shunt type. The shunt carries most of the load since its wired in parallel with the ammeter. But its still wired in series in the car so all the load goes through the shunt and gauge. I would say most of the older muscle cars dont have the shunt type as I dont think Mopar started using it until about 1971. My moms 72 Monaco wagon had a shunt type on it as thats the first year I remember seeing a shunt type ammeter on a Mopar. I believe one reason they went to it was because many complained about the ammeter going to discharge at idle at night with the lights and heater on and since on the shunt type the shunt carries about 90% of the load the shunt type ammeters hardly move at all even when charging or discharging and that way many customers stopped complaining about the ammeter swinging from discharge to charge. But the load still went through the bulkhead connectors and one circuit. Dont matter if it was the shunt or the gauge carrying the load all the load still goes through them.
So the point is if you bypass the ammeter and or shunt you can run the power off the battery how you like since you wont need to run all the power through the ammeter circuit to see if its charging since you can hook a voltmeter up at a key on voltage in parallel to see how the charging system is working. Thats the point I was telling the gentleman as why its not a bad idea to bypass the ammeter circuit and just use a simple voltmeter to moniter the charging circuit. Really dont matter if its a shunt type or not since the reason is to eliminate having to run all the load through one wire to the ammeter and shunt if equipped. Ron

So if I get your reasoning it's more the stock wiring going to the ammeter, and not the ammeter itself, that is at issue...with the assumption being all of the wiring faults might get addressed when someone wired up a voltmeter in place of an ammeter. FWIW I've looked over a few factory ammeters over the years and all have a fairly substantial brass strip in them that I am sure could carry some serious voltage/amperage. I could see where things like insulators and spacers meant to isolate the ammeter from grounding or shorting out could break down and cause a short; I guess I've been lucky never to have that happen...just the corroded wires thru the firewall problem.