Re: Hot Amp Meter and Starting Problems

Posted by John Regan on September 10, 1998 at 00:10:46

In Reply to: Hot Amp Meter and Starting Problems
posted by Ken Forse on September 09, 1998 at 13:20:15

Assuming the thing is not pegged and giving a maximum reading the only thing that will make the ammeter get HOT to the touch is if it is acting like a high resistance instead of a very low resistance.A good ammeter is a direct short circuit between the 2 studs.I have encountered several original ammeters that became so tarnished on the inside where studs contact the heavy "shunt" piece that they basically were not making good contact and thus were not a direct short across the terminals.On the car that had this problem, it had all sorts of problems since this high resistance would cause the battery not to charge properly and also made the headlights dim.It was intermittant and thus hard to locate on the car that I worked on.We installed a new ammeter and that fixed it but later I was able to open up the original meter and buff off the shunt piece and I then soldered the studs to it for good measure.It works fine now and my friend ultimately replaced the repro meter with the original again.I suspect if your meter is original you may be having that same problem.The studs were tight on the outside on his too when he had the problem which made it baffling at first.On original meters the contact between the studs and the shunt inside is not soldered and relys on the square part of the stud under the head to make contact to the brass shunt inside.Hard to believe but it was so tarnished it was not connecting very good at all.

Good luck.




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