Ammeter guage to voltmeter guage

[rustbucket66]

When I installed my wiring kit from American Autowire, their instructions said to not hook up the ammeter at all, because it burns out and can be a fire hazard. They were designed for 40-50 amp alternators, and the new alternators we use make up to 100 amps for all the accessories we have. I looked at the backside of my guage, and the wiring is burned and the backside of the faceplate is brown under the heat. The picture isn't very clear, but you can see the burnt area under the little coil. I took an over the counter Autometer voltmeter, and took it apart to mount in place of the ammeter. The picture shows the guage housing that the voltmeter came out of, and the old ammeter that will be discarded. On the new guage I had to trim the faceplate a bit around the edges to fit, and used a little flat piece of wood, trimmed to fit behind the faceplate. I glued the faceplate to the housing, and the wood piece to the back of the faceplate. The wood I used was from a mousetrap, it was the perfect thickness and easy to shape. The next two pictures show it mounted beside the temp guage. I reused the gaskets from the old guage on the mounting surface to insulate the posts from touch the dash housing. The last pic shows it mounted in the dash. I'd rather have a voltmeter so you can know what your charging system is doing. I replaced the temp guage also, I'm disappointed that it isn't quite the same, but the old one doesn't work. The whole thing was fairly simple and I didn't really have to modify anything. It replaced a guage I couldn't use as well.