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Old 06-14-2009, 06:22 PM
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You have to be careful of your amp meter in your cluster and the wires. The more amps you have, the larger the wire has to be for it. If you have a volt meter, you'll be fine. If you have an amp meter, you'll want to make sure that it can handle the amps. If it only goes up to 80 amps, you'll need to get and aftermarket gauge or bypass it all together.
Old 06-15-2009, 07:05 PM
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Voltmeter only reads up to 18 volts. An amp meter will read -60 to +60 or -80 to +80 or D to C
Old 06-16-2009, 04:28 PM
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Hey Pan, theres a fix out there for amp meter. Lots of folks have bypassed them. I'll keep my eyes out for it. Might be on Allpar or mymopar.com
Old 06-16-2009, 04:42 PM
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Might also want to read up on how to align your alternator without using a roll of nickles!
Old 06-16-2009, 06:29 PM
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the old mopars used a straight through amp gauge with a mechanical regulator (lousy setup). Newer mopes used an ampmeter with a "shunt" wire for protection in conjunction with an electronic voltrage regulator. {i have no idea what year they changed to the shunted ampmeter}. Even newer mopes used a voltmeter.

I like the idea of bypassing the old ampmeter and using a voltmeter with an elect. volt reg. I think all you have to do is run a large gauge wire in conjunction with the appropriate size fusible link from the output post of the alt. to the hot post on the starter relay. [maybe even the hot post on the starter itself].


side note: I noticed while driving my Freightliner today that the Amp gauge is rated at 100 amps in either direction.{D or C}
Old 06-16-2009, 07:16 PM
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I have a single wire setup in my jeep for a 140 amp alternator. I can replace the amp meter that I have with a volt meter but I just check the voltage at the battery every once in a while with a multimeter and call it good.
Old 06-16-2009, 07:16 PM
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Then again, my j10 is just a wheeling rig..... not a muscle car.
Old 06-16-2009, 10:00 PM
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Yeah 78, I think the amp gauge in the 78 jeeps had the shunt wire. I think the one's you gotta watch out for are the early {pre '75}(not sure?) with no shunt wire that are rated at 50 amps.[?] If you combine one of those with a high powered alt. and add alot of accessories you are just askin' for trouble. All your loads must go through that gauge and it doesn't take much to add up to 50 amps. and 50 amps is pushing it. [high powered stereo, etc..] TRhen consider the age of the stuf.
Old 06-17-2009, 01:53 AM
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My j10 is a 74 and the gauge read up to 60 amps. The how charging system went through the gauge so when I had issues with it, I just built my own cluster and everything worked out great, with the stock alternator. Now that I have a high output, I just by pasts the gauge and hooked up the positive single wire back to the battery.
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