I've noticed that in my manual for my 83 CJ, the volt gauge has a huge yellow wire,..which I have. It's larger than any other hot wires going to any gauges. But my volt gauge is practically pegged. It does tend to move with the RPMs. Can't figure out if it's my guage or not, or do I have too much juice going to the thing. Allen
You sure you're not thinking of the ammeter? That particular meter normally has a pretty heavy wire going to it but the volt meter can get by with a skinny wire.
Jerry
I only know of one guage that measures electricity in anyway on a CJ and that's the voltage meter. Sits next to the oil pressure gauge. But it usually sits close to 16 all the time. Can't figure where else that yellow wire goes, according to the scematic drawing, it's yellow. Speaking of the oil pressure guage, it acts funny too. Sits at 20 psi for the most part, when the revs get low, it drops all of a sudden from 20 to zero,..I mean buried like it's getting no juice at all. A tap of the gas and it jumps abruptly back to 20. Funny too,...only on the highway does the valves clatter. Wonder if my pump is bad. Thanks Jerry! Allen
I rewired a friend's '73 CJ from scratch including a total rewire of his instrument cluster and it had an ammeter, not a voltmeter. We ended up swapping the ammeter for a voltmeter since the generator had been taken out and an alternator replaced it. It really depends on if the CJ originally came with a generator which comes with an ammeter and not a voltmeter, or a later CJ that came with an alternator which substituted the ammeter for a voltmeter.
Jerry
-- Jerry Bransford To email, remove 'me' from my email address KC6TAY, PP-ASEL See the Geezer Jeep at
Come to think about it, his newer '83 CJ probably came with an alternator from the factory, not a generator as older CJs did... so it likely would have come with a voltmeter and not an ammeter.
Jerry
You need to check with a multimeter.
With it running, put the meter on the battery to see what's there and on the big red wire and ground on the alternator and see what it is putting out.
A battery with a cell going dead will spike the alternator voltage high.
An alternator with a blown diode on the regulator also can spike the voltage high. Usually by one volt or so.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'ssnipped-for-privacy@columbus.rr.com wrote:
Yes, that fat Yel wire goes into the back of the voltmeter. My CJ also reports that it is cranking out juice in the 16v range.
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