SF Alternator Upgraded Wire Size?

[patrickt]

The voltmeter versus ammeter debate has been around forever and hashed out here many times. The main drawback to an ammeter is the safety aspect. A good shunt wire will take care of that and there are aspects of an ammeter that are desirable if you know what you're looking at. My ammeter tells me a ton of information, but only because I've been watching it for almost 20 years under a variety of conditions. That said, there are still times that I'd like to know what my voltage is without having to hop out of the car and hook up a VOM under the hood. That's when I plug in my little cigarette lighter voltmeter that also happens to have two USB outlets in it as well, just in case I need to charge my phone (which has never actually happened, but could). The combination of having an ammeter and a voltmeter together can't be beat when you're trying to diagnose an electrical problem -- real or perceived. But for 99% of the time, I run an ammeter alone.

[Davidless]

I have the drop down console push button start option and there is an extra port where people put in a volt meter.

Not sure why SF doesn’t instal a shunt on the amp meter. I’m not exited about ripping the dash apart on a new car for it unless I can wire it in on the outside possibly firewall.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Davidless

Not sure why SF doesn’t instal a shunt on the amp meter. I’m not exited about ripping the dash apart on a new car for it unless I can wire it in on the outside possibly firewall.

Check the wiring diagram from Blas and there's bound to be a short cut for the shunt wire. All you're doing is bracketing the ammeter so you can do it almost anywhere on each side of the meter short of hopping over a protective device, like a fuse, circuit breaker, fusible link, etc.

[Davidless]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Check the wiring diagram from Blas and there's bound to be a short cut for the shunt wire. All you're doing is bracketing the ammeter so you can do it almost anywhere on each side of the meter short of hopping over a protective device, like a fuse, circuit breaker, fusible link, etc.

Thanks I’m going to look into it and definitely do it, I’ll keep my 150 amp and just use an inline fuse to protect the system, maybe 50 amp, unless I install power windows, lol

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Davidless

Thanks I’m going to look into it and definitely do it, I’ll keep my 150 amp and just use an inline fuse to protect the system, maybe 50 amp, unless I install power windows, lol

Just remember that an excess amount of amperage because of high load is far less likely in these cars than a fault to ground. If you're not rockin' with a serious audio system, or jacklighting deer, you're not going to muster over 50 amps of load with headlights and a fan. But if you manage to cause a fault to ground on the charging wire you have both the alternator and the battery to worry about.

[Blas]

Just install a fusible link on the alternator and forget about all this. You are not running a lathe machine or anything. Just don’t install a huge alternator. You will be just fine with the AMP meter wiring as the car is designed. No reason to install a high output alternator.
Blas