Updated October 20th 2011

Ammeter gauge installation and wiring

Above general guidelines, qualified experience is required. Otherwise look for qualified and experienced install technicians.

To check the capacity.

Have your maximum alternator output tested. Improper wire size and/or ammeter or any loose connections can cause overheating, which may lead to a fire in the vehicle. The capacity of the wire and ammeter should be least 10 amps more than the maximum alternator output in the vehicle.

The ammeter is always connected in series.

To measure current, the ammeter is always connected in series, otherwise a heavy short circuit will take place and the meter will be immediately destroyed. None of the ammeter connections must be connected to ground.

Disconnect the negative battery cable.

Prior to all work, reconnect the negative cable.

Use no less than the required size of gauge wire.

Check with the installation guide, it shall inform about the minimum gauge size. Smaller size must not be used due to the over heating that otherwise will occur.

Crimp terminals have to be used.

They also have to be soldered onto the cables.

How to solder.

There are different soldering tools, most common is a simple soldering iron, or a soldering station, a cable tool and of course you also need tin.
With the cable tool, make the cable ends be new and clean. Before you put the cables in the crimp terminals, solder them a little. Scratch the inner surface of the crimp terminals. Put the cable in them, respectively. Warm up and put on the tin, it should be dome quickly. If you aren't able to do this in a professional way, you have to consult somebody else. A good soldering looks smooth and covers the surface, without too much tin.

The cable mounting

The base nuts on both of the ammeter terminals have to be tight before installing the terminal lugs. After that use a star lockwasher on both sides of each terminal lug. Then, tighten the terminal nut.
As mentioned before, none of the teminals are connected to ground.

Then reconnect the battery negative cable.
Just turn on the lights and the meter should give a negative indication. Otherwise, disconnect the negative battery terminal, reverse the ammeter wires and reconnect the negative battery terminal.
Now, after rechecking everything again, you may start the engine. When the meter shows a lot of current, look for hot spots on the cables. If there are, then cables are not heavy enough and have to be replaced.

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