Which one Ammeter or voltmeter would be easiest to install and give a more accurate reading?

amp meters tell you if the charging system is charging or discharging. volt meters tell how much voltage is in the battery. I like amp meters, if it want crank, I know the battery has low voltage, unless the starter is going out. If you jump it, the amp meter will show you its charging, so you most likely got a bad battery. I don't know what you're working on to tell how to hook up either

Well i have a 78 Nova with a sbc 305. I am looking to get some gauges. I have the oil press and water temp gauges that are mechanical but im going to switch to electrical soon. Anyway other than those 2 gauges i just have dummy lights and was going to get a gauge to tell me how my electrical system is holding up.

If you deside on the amp, theres a 10 gage wire running from the hot terminel on the starter up and across the firewall to a junkon on the fire wall, it'll be two screws stickin out, the wire from the starter will be on the passenger side. Disconnect it, run it into the amp meter, come off the other side of the amp meter to the post which you removed the other wire. If when you're done, watch the gage and turn on the lights. If it charges, swap the wires on the meter, if it discharges you got it. Beam - bat -a - boum

Nova, howdy niehgbor, Im in Festus.

Go with a voltmeter, much easier to install. The ampmeter requires a heavy gage wire. The voltmeter will tell you as much information as you need to know. If you are running remote voltage sensing for your alternator, that very heavy wire (usually 8 awg) must first run through the voltmeter, which dramatically lenghtens the voltage sensing wire. Then you must compensate for voltage drop at the voltage sensing terminal on the alternator.


See the following site for great information on remote voltage sensing and ampmeters vs voltage meters.

http://www.madelectrical.com/electrical-tech.shtml

Vince

Im about 25 miles south of you.
Thanks for all the help guys, i thihnk im going to go with a voltmeter.

General Motors puts Volt Meters in their cars...........not Amp gauges. If the volt meter dies..........the car will still run.

NOT SO with a Amp gauge.

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[size=3]Doc here


Volt meters are easier to install, and if you read them right, convey about the same information as to if the charging system is working or not...I mean, like, zero is zero....no matter what gauge.

Doc [/size]

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Deuce, but GM did in trucks...my 75 has one...it doesnt work, it runs.

There are 2 main components to an ammeter. A shunt and a meter movement. If the meter movement quits, no problem. If the shunt fails, no juice and big problems. However, the shunt is more or less a copper bar of a certain size. Not much chance it will go bad.

On a COLD night in Charlotte NC......about 10 degrees above zero....... at midnight. It went bad........


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__________________
I went to the school of hard knocks ...
where the tuition is high but the retention is exceptional !

This argument has been going on for at least the 4 decades I have been aware of hot rodding. Ron Francis @ Wire Works is hostile against ammeters. Other experts swear by them. Volt meters are pretty much the safest way to go; easier to install, no safety implications and won't kill the electrical system if they fail. It is important where you take your voltage reading though - different places in your harness have significantly different voltages depending on the loads and resistances. Most logical place is where your alternator feed ties into the fuse/distribution block.

Thanks every on for the help i think im going with the voltmeter. Hey Stepside are you going to the car show in Fenton this Friday?

I like the volt meter. Simpler to install and it tells you everything including battery condition. If the volts are staying in the accepted range it doesn't matter what the amps are doing.
Key on and all accessorys off you should have around 12.5 volts. Idling with everything on you should have at least 1 volt more. You never want to see more than about 15. Cranking it shouldn't drop under about 10.5