Please relax a little dude....... If you had read what I said, "its kinda like the old skool hot rod guys used to do"
I'm relaxed and I read what you wrote. And it's not even
kinda like what they did.
I know the Old Skool hot rod guys were only copying the Race Teams etc and I thought that is what us Cal Look guy were trying to do in a way
Look, I'm not being an asshat about it. I just want you to think about the meaning of the things that you intend to copy. If I truly didn't give a crap I wouldn't speak up. I'd just pat you on the back and tell you how awesome your idea is.
The whole point of building a hot rod is to fulfill the purpose of speed. The original hot-rod pioneers were modernists in the sense that they eliminated the non-essential things and refined what remained. Think in those terms when modifying a car.
Other than brand of cars and the era, the only thing that differentiated the cal-look guys from the hot-rod pioneers was that the cal-look guys made the objective explicit. The rodders regarded the act of simplifying a car as tacit--nobody really talked about it. They just did it with the understanding that it made the car better in whatever way they were trying to achieve. The cars existed prior to the first cal-look issue but that article explicitly stated that to build a cal-look car you eliminated all of the crap people ladled on their cars. You chose a simple paint. You chose wheels and tires that fit inside the wells. That article talked about the simplification that hot rodders really didn't ponder.
Anyway The only reason I asked about fitting the Ammeter in the engine bay was because YOU mentioned how annoying it was running the BIG cable the full length of the car.... So fitting it next to the dynamo seemed like a good idea plus it looks cool
It's more of a safety issue than a pain. Think about it: you basically triple the amount of large primary wire through the car. And most ammeters aren't shunted which means if the current outpaces the ammeter's capacity (usually a short in the wire or excessive current draw from say lights) then the ammeter usually overheats and can catch fire. That's not to say that it's common but the risk is real.
You have to justify that risk. Ammeters make sense when you're running high-current devices that run the risk of outpacing the generator. Say you're running headlights, a radio, a CB radio, a heater or vent fan, and a bunch of driving lights. Those things could consume more amperage than the generator can produce. So the ammeter tells you how well the generator/alternator is keeping up with the system. That's the primary reason it's not a great idea to mount one where you can't see it when you're using those devices.
It sounds like the idiot lamp is sufficient in your case. Typically a generator either works or doesn't. If it works it almost always generates the current to replenish the battery. If it doesn't work...well then the lamp lights up. It's really not worth the risk and hassle to run one in your case.
Anyway back to my original question.......... Can I fitted the Ammeter in that wire that goes from the dyno to the starter OR do I need to add a second wire DIRECT from the dyno to the battery
*sigh* Seriously? Didn't I answer that one already? The large output post on the regulator (I think B+) will have two wires coming out of it. One wire will go directly to the front of the car to the starter switch and fuse panel. The
other one would go to the big post on the starter. The ONLY cable attached to the battery's positive terminal should be the large one that goes to the post on the starter.
Then, when your generator can't keep up with your intense electrical system, it will point to the - to show that the battery is discharging. And when it's recharging the battery after a duration of excessive current draw, it will point to the +.
For those of you reading this who intend to run an ammeter with a high-output alternator, remember to choose an ammeter that has greater capacity than the alternator. A 30-amp ammeter won't live long if you're charging a big dead battery with a 75-amp alternator.
good luck.
The Cal-look Lounge
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