[LoudMalibu]

do i install to the battery or to the alternator? and where?

[dklong]

on back of your volt guage there should be pos and neg and a light wire. the light wire you splice into your light switch wire going too your dash lights. the neg goes to ground and pos you wire ,into your fuse panel. find a terminal marked ign or into one of your fuses. make sure the meter has no reading with the ign off, or it will drain your batt!!

[xtreme off-road]

I would wire it directly to the battery. If you connect it to the fuse panel you will get false readings when you turn things on. Your heater blower, signals, brake lights, head lights....etc, will put enough load on the fuse panel that your meter will give a false reading of the state of your battery. When your engine is running, your alt. is supplying all the power for your vehicule. The voltmeter is to inform you on the condition of your battery, not how much power is getting to your fuse panel. And don't worry about it being "on" even with the key "off". It will take quite a few month before it starts to drag down your battery. Voltmeter are a very, very small load on a car battery. Usually arount 100 thousand to 1 Megohm. About the same amout of power your radio uses to keep your favorite stations in memory.

Just my $1.02 worth. (inflation you-know) <img src="graemlins/drunk.gif" border="0" alt="[drunk]" />

[dmorris1200]

Well on this one I have to disagree (just my opinion here). If there is that much of a difference between what voltage is at your battery and at your fusebox you have problems. The main harness to the fuse box feeds right off the battery (or main distribution block) and if we assume wires carry practically no resistance what voltage is at the battery should be just about at the fuse box. If you hook up a voltmeter at the battery and watch it while someone turns things on (lights, blower motor, etc.) you will see the meter fluctuate even at the battery. For many years now it's just been one of my pet peeves, I hate to see any wiring through a firewall that is not necessary. I also hate when I see what I call the 'spagetti' mess, which is when I open a hood and there's wires running everywhere. On any gauges that I have ever installed the only wires I run through the firewall are those that I had to (signal wires to senders).

Just my $1.04 worth. (inflations rising you know)

[ February 02, 2003: Message edited by: dmorris1200 ]</p>

[LoudMalibu]

<img src="graemlins/boxing.gif" border="0" alt="[boxing]" /> <img src="graemlins/boxing.gif" border="0" alt="[boxing]" />

well i have 1 wire running tot he water temp sender which right now is on the top of the intake, is this in the right place?

also do i run the ground part to the battery as well or just the positive

[fireschenie]

Neither, just ground the negative to the dash and splice the pos onto an ignition like DMORRIS said. I would probably use the ign switch for the radio.
Good Luck
Fireschenie

[xtreme off-road]

I hate seeing a mess under a hood too, but if it is properly installed you won't see them. It is true that we could assume that wires have no resistance. But now days they try to make cars lighter and easier to build, so they use smaller wires an 3 or 4 connectors in the path from your battery to the fuse panel, not to mention the loss in the fuse an fusible links. I wasn't trying to say that this is the only way to do it. But when it comes to a gauge that is going to tell you that you are going to make it to your destination or not, you want it to be reliable and accurate.

I guess that makes my $1.02 only worth $0.52 because I'm a CANADIAN....EH!!!!

[LoudMalibu]

well it turns out the gauge don't work.. there no names and i got them for free so im not angry, well kinda

anyway, i guess ill go buy another cheap volt meter and put it in its spot

[Swears]

Hey, What is the difference between a voltage meter and an ammeter.

Basically I want something to read how much extra power I'm making. I already blew one alternator and now I bought a high output one. Will an ammeter do this for me?

[malc]

Read this about ammeters first http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...p-gauges.shtml

[malc]

Me again, this attachment is a tad grubby, sorry.

[nosaj122081]

An ammeter, depending on where you have it wired into, measures the current flow down the path its on in the circuit. A high output alternator has a high output CAPACITY, but will only make as much as the circuit needs. Theres only a current flow where theres a difference in potential (such as some kinda resistive element like a radio or headlights). If you wired an ammeter in series with the main harness, it would show the current usage of all the circuits off the main fuse box.

As far as voltmeters, I'm with the guys that say hook it in parallel with the battery. Thats the only real way to measure the true battery voltage because no matter how good your wiring is theres going to be some difference between the fuse block and the battery.