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Hello All,
I've
been hearing alot of talk over ammeters and figured I'd offer my thoughts. Here
goes.........
AFAIK, all ammeters that I have ever ran
across have three terminals, one for grounding, one for charging, and one for
discharging (starting/running accessories). Basically an ammeter in the easiest
method I can describe is a tug of war match. Picture this, the ground terminal
is the line drawn in the center of the match. On the left side, you have the
discharge "team" which wants to pull the needle to the left when you start the
car/run accessories. On the right side you have the charging "team" which tries
to pull the needle to the right when the alternator is running. The tug of war
match causes a electrical tug of war match resulting in an indication on the
dial that shows you what's going on in a measurement of Amperes. Amperes are a
measurement of electrical current. When you think of current think of a wide
stream. Voltage is an amount of pressure. When you think of this, think of the
same wide stream but with a busted dam in front of it spewing out alot of
water.When multiplied with the current, it creates power which is measured
in watts. Now every ammeter I've ever seen hooked up in a car either
factory or aftermarket uses a three or two (self grounding) terminal ammeter. In
every case I've seen the charge side is hooked to the output terminal of the
alternator (or Generators armature terminal) and the discharge side hooked
directly to the starter in some fashion. Now, I don't claim to have seen it all
but this is the most common way doing it. As far as the FL cars usually if you
compare a Plymouth's electrical system (w/o ammeter) and a Chrysler's
(w/ammeter) you'll find that aside from the extra goodies/options, they add an
ammeter in this way. They take away the wire that the Plymouth has between the
batt. terminal(charge) on the generator regulator and the starter
solenoid's terminal that has the battery and main power feed for the accessories
(discharge) and put an ammeter between it. Well, that's my two cents on it. If
you have a FL car with a different setup for your ammeter that is factory
correct, send it to me. I'd love to see what they did. Talk with you all later.
Take Care,
Frank
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