Im thinking of putting an ammeter in my 98 MPi and was wondering how to wire it. Do i need to take a feed directly off my alternator, if so, which wire is it? Then is it simply earthed in the normal way, such as my voltmeter?
As i said, 98 MPi, am i best getting a 60 0 60 ammeter of is a 30 0 30 sufficient?
many thanks Ryan Shaw
HI!
An ammeter will measure current flowing through it so you have to literally cut the cable and stick it in between, I would opt for the higher rated ammeter as if you look at the combined loads of all of your electrical equipment it would probably be over 30 amps (headlamps, fuel pump, heater blower etc) plus your alternator should be capable of charging the battery at a pretty high rate too!
best place to wire it in? dependant on what you want to measure, most people opt for the battery to solenoid feed ( big wire from battery to engine bay) which basically involves extending the battery cable to reach to meter and then reconnecting a new wire from the meter to the solenoid.
some people put an extra ammeter in to monitor what the car is drawing irrespective of whether the alternator is charging or not, this goes between the battery, alternator feeds and all the output wires on the solenoid, it all depends how much time you want to spend playing!
PS don't earth it! it might get rather hot!
miniman
MiniMan I defer to your obvious experience but Man is it safe to place that mush voltage/amperage behind the dash?
If safe then carry on, one cannot have too much clocks - lol.
Well - depends ;) If you do a proper job (as in using quality connectors and wires with enough cross-sectional area) and if the ammeter is ok it is. Also use good insulation on the ammeter terminals, contact with anything earthed (like the dashboard rails) should be avoided *g*.
Just for reference, here's a diagram:
True indeed ;)
Yours,
-.jan.-
As long as the cables are nicely protected from abrasion and routed away from any sharp edges, you shouldn't have any problems.
We all know what happens when the battery cable becomes detached and tries to be friends with the exhaust pipe! :-(
Rally cars route the battery cables and fuel/brake lines inside the car to avoid damage to them from impact, the best thing to do is sleeve everything up inside the car to help protect it.
The other thing that can be done to safeguard things is to fit a battery isolator switch so that you can switch off the supply in the event of any faults, ( a bit better than trying to find a spanner that fits the terminals on your battery when smoke is issuing from under the car!)
minman
must have more clocks.......mmmmmm
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