Amp Gauge Blow Up

[patrickt]

That "empty" fuse usually runs the fan. Your fan must be wired in and fused elsewhere. But look over on the left side and you can see that the hot sides of fuse one and fuse two are connected. That's the charging path. All THREE of those labeled wires are connected together. It also kind of looks like the connector between fuse one and fuse two looks a little melted, but maybe not. The red wire is the one that should run to your ammeter and from your ammeter to the circuit breaker, that is the last stop before the battery. The other two wires I have labeled for you. Now, I could always be wrong on this so check the actual wiring. You can look under the dash at the ignition switch pretty easily, and of course look at the alternator. You can replace that red wire that caused all the problems without having to actually remove it. Just cut it at both ends (fuse box and circuit breaker) and cut it out from under the dash as best you can, then tape it all off. When you drop the dash you'll be able see how that red wire goes to the ammeter. When it heated up, it may have damaged some other wires as well, but you'll be able to see that. If it looks really, really bad to you, then just send it up to ERA and they'll do it for you. But I think that if you replace that red wire, with a straight shot between the circuit breaker and fuse box, and then touch up any scorched wires under the dash, and put in a volt meter, you'll be fine.