Electrical: ammeter to voltmeter swap

[evilhawk]

Hi guys,

I have a 1959 hawk with a ammeter that looks to have seen much better days. I don't have another ammeter to replace it with, but I do have a voltmeter. I think this is a very novice question, but will the voltmeter hookup the same way as the ammeter (red wire to battery or starter solenoid and black wire to voltage regulator)? I plan to run the stock generator and voltage regulator.

[Warren Webb]

Simple answer is the ammeter receives the voltage & passes it on while the voltmeter just receives it. If you replace it with a voltmeter then I would think you could "piggy-back" the other wire to the same terminal.

[TWChamp]

No. you need to tie the two ammeter wires together to pass the current if you remove the ammeter. To install a volt meter you just need to pick up battery voltage for one meter terminal, and pick up a ground for the other terminal.

In other words the ammeter reads current measured in amps, by being connected in series with the battery, and the volt meter reads voltage by being connected parallel to the battery.

[bezhawk]

Here is how you would do it. Hook both ammeter wires to the + terminal of the volt meter. The other side of the volt meter goes to ground.

[evilhawk]

Thats pretty much what I was thinking. Thank you guys!