Burnt out ammeter

[Newport 664door]

I have been following the thread on ammeter problems, my 66 383 newport just had same issue, the wire burned to a crisp. I understand the bypass procedure, however my ammeter in addition to the black and red heavy wires, has a 3 pin connector that was damaged also. If I understand correctly, the 2 main wires feed the power to the ammeter, now how do I get power to the 3 pin connector that burnt also? Thanks for any help

 

[live4theking]

What three prong connector are you talking about?

 

[Clover]

I have been following the thread on ammeter problems, my 66 383 newport just had same issue, the wire burned to a crisp. I understand the bypass procedure, however my ammeter in addition to the black and red heavy wires, has a 3 pin connector that was damaged also. If I understand correctly, the 2 main wires feed the power to the ammeter, now how do I get power to the 3 pin connector that burnt also? Thanks for any help

‘64s Cs are not my specialty but it is unlikely that the three/pin connector is for the ammeter itself. Rather, it likely is connecting to the circuit board. A wiring diagram (FSM has them) and a bit of electrical knowledge will be helpful. You need to identify which circuits burned and why they did so.

 

[Clover]

I just noticed that I erred and your car is a ‘66. I do know those and that connector is not for the ammeter. I’m not sure off the top of my head, what it’s supplying but it’s not to the ammeter. I don’t have a ‘66 wiring diagram but the ‘66 just has two wires for the ammeter. Tracing the circuit board paths will tell you/us what circuits are affected. How about a pic of obverse and reverse of the cluster, with the three-pin connector area shown?

 

[Newport 664door]

I just noticed that I erred and your car is a ‘66. I do know those and that connector is not for the ammeter. I’m not sure off the top of my head, what it’s supplying but it’s not to the ammeter. I don’t have a ‘66 wiring diagram but the ‘66 just has two wires for the ammeter. Tracing the circuit board paths will tell you/us what circuits are affected. How about a pic of obverse and reverse of the cluster, with the three-pin connector area shown?

 

[Newport 664door]

I found a wiring diagram, the 3 prong connector is for gas gauge, dash lights and 1 other thing. But this has to be powered by the red and black wires feeding into ammeter. I did get car into driveway by cutting the burned red and black and connected them. As for why they fried, there was no fuseable link on starter relay.

 

[Newport 664door]

What three prong connector are you talking about?

There is a 3 prong connector on back of ammeter , I guess it draws its power through the red and black feeds to ammeter. It supplies power to interior lights, gas gauge tank and gauge feed, according to wiring diagram

 

[Newport 664door]

There is a 3 prong connector on back of ammeter , I guess it draws its power through the red and black feeds to ammeter. It supplies power to interior lights, gas gauge tank and gauge feed, according to wiring diagram. So short of finding and replacing the original ammeter unit, what I am trying to do is figure out a way to supply power to the 3 prong connector so I have interior lights and working gas gauge , I Installed the proper fuseable link that was missing, I have spliced the black and red power supply wires together, so car will start. Just want to safely wire it together. I will just add a aftermarket volt meter. Thanks for all the responses

 

[Newport 664door]

Hey fellows, back to working on my ammeter problem. I spliced black and red to get it started. Here is the 3 prong connector. Labeled A B C on diagram. Tank- gauge feed- dash lights. It came off back of ammeter. Is it safe to keep black and red spliced permanently? Then I was going to run a separate hot wire to the gauge feed terminal on connector to get dash and fuel gauge working. Any ideas?

 

[Newport 664door]

I just noticed that I erred and your car is a ‘66. I do know those and that connector is not for the ammeter. I’m not sure off the top of my head, what it’s supplying but it’s not to the ammeter. I don’t have a ‘66 wiring diagram but the ‘66 just has two wires for the ammeter. Tracing the circuit board paths will tell you/us what circuits are affected. How about a pic of obverse and reverse of the cluster, with the three-pin connector area shown?

 

[Newport 664door]

I just noticed that I erred and your car is a ‘66. I do know those and that connector is not for the ammeter. I’m not sure off the top of my head, what it’s supplying but it’s not to the ammeter. I don’t have a ‘66 wiring diagram but the ‘66 just has two wires for the ammeter. Tracing the circuit board paths will tell you/us what circuits are affected. How about a pic of obverse and reverse of the cluster, with the three-pin connector area shown?

I added a picture further down the thread

 

[saylor]

you need to make that a for real bad *** connection splice and not just twist wire and electrical tape. you are standing at the point that is the flaming burning melting death of MANY old mopars.

this is no farting around territory here.

go find nachoRT mad ammeter bypass its here somewhere.

try not to die in a dash fire -

- saylor

 

[JM_ART]

Catalog
Read this two page article from MAD Electrical. @cbarge would be a good brain to pick since he seems to frequently bypass ammeters. I’m working toward completing mine this weekend.

 

[cbarge]

Since the gayges and dash lights go through the ammeter, locate another working ammeter gauge.
Highly recommend bypassing the ammeter under the hood. I do not recommend leavingvthe ammeter wires tied together permanently as others mentioned can burn the car to the ground.
OR
locate a switched power feed and wire up the gauges and locate switchwd power feed from headlight switch to power up dash lights. More work but takes out piggy back on ammeter.
Hope this helps

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

I didn't know gauges could be gay.

 

[JM_ART]

Since the gayges and dash lights go through the ammeter, locate another working ammeter gauge.
Highly recommend bypassing the ammeter under the hood. I do not recommend leavingvthe ammeter wires tied together permanently as others mentioned can burn the car to the ground.
OR
locate a switched power feed and wire up the gauges and locate switchwd power feed from headlight switch to power up dash lights. More work but takes out piggy back on ammeter.
Hope this helps

I think you may be able to help me understand the diagram on the MAD website then. It shows the underhood ammeter bypass, but also a full bypass of the gauge itself, with the red and black wires spliced together before the welded splice. I’m a bit confused by this.

 

[saylor]

I am set like the above ^ diag. They say solder the splice. I have seen nutsnbolts splice done here too. it CANT touch anything to ground out super wrap it and shrink wrap it THEN tape it.

i have no ammeter. installed voltmeter and kept going.

try not to die -

- saylor

 

[saylor]

the other spot is where it is passing thru the bulkhead. jump off/out/away from the bulkhead and use a firewall hole come in direct with 10AWG or better wire iirc.

 

[JM_ART]

the other spot is where it is passing thru the bulkhead. jump off/out/away from the bulkhead and use a firewall hole come in direct with 10AWG or better wire iirc.

That’s what I planned on doing. I was going to go 10 gauge red wire into the passenger compartment through a clean hole with a grommet, crimp to the black wire at the other terminal, and then run the black wire, from the welded splice, back out through the same hole and to the starter relay. That’s how the diagram sets up, isn’t it? Then the ammeter is fully bypassed, right?

 

[Newport 664door]

Thanks for all the info and charts. What I did to get it functional, I crimped, taped, liquid taped and crimped a heat shrink connector to blank and red wires. For the 3 pin connector it had a broken middle( power) pin where it melted on ammeter. I pulled the black out of connector and jumped the gas gauge and interior wires to the black power source. So I guess I should carry a fire extinguisher? Lol